Mark Six Lottery

What it is

The Mark Six is a 6-out-of-49 lottery game¹. You choose six different numbers between 1 and 49, and the draw produces seven numbers: the first six are the Drawn Numbers, and the seventh is the special number⁵. Your prize depends on how many of your numbers match the Drawn Numbers, and the special number decides the lower tiers.

It is the only lottery legally sold in Hong Kong, and it has been run by the Hong Kong Jockey Club since 1975⁶. The game has kept the same basic "pick 6 from 49" format for decades⁶.

The money side is straightforward. Of the total taken in, 54 percent is paid out as dividends to winners, 15 percent goes to the Lotteries Fund, and 6 percent is the Jockey Club's commission³. The Lotteries Fund is the reason the Mark Six exists in its current form: it channels lottery money into charitable and community projects across Hong Kong.

Licenses and regulator

The Mark Six is operated by the Hong Kong Jockey Club, a not-for-profit body that also runs horse racing and football betting in Hong Kong⁶. The Jockey Club is the only organization authorized to run a lottery in the territory, which is why you will not find a competing legal Hong Kong lottery.

Because the Jockey Club is the sole operator, there is no separate licensing market to shop around in. If you are buying a Mark Six ticket, you are buying it from the Jockey Club, whether at a branch, through its online channels, or at an authorized outlet.

The Jockey Club also sets the responsible gambling rules that apply to the Mark Six. The minimum age for all of its betting and lottery products is 18, and the operator publishes responsible gambling guidance for players¹. If you look under 18, expect to be asked for ID.

Where it accepts players

The Mark Six is open to anyone aged 18 or over, and that includes visitors and non-residents. You do not need a Hong Kong ID card to buy a ticket, and tourists are a normal part of the customer base at Jockey Club branches.

Tickets are sold at Jockey Club betting branches and other authorized outlets across Hong Kong¹. The Jockey Club also runs online and mobile channels for account holders, which is how many regular players buy their entries without visiting a branch.

One useful feature for regular players is the Multiple Draw Entry, which lets you enter the same set of numbers for consecutive draws⁸. If you have a set of numbers you like and you do not want to re-enter them every time, this saves you the trip or the clicks.

If you are visiting Hong Kong and want to try the Mark Six, the practical steps are simple:

1. Walk into a Jockey Club betting branch.
2. Fill in a ticket with six numbers from 1 to 49.
3. Pay at the counter.
4. Keep the ticket safe, because it is your claim to any prize.

You do not need to open an account for a paper ticket, and you do not need to be a resident.

The legal position by country

The Mark Six is legal in Hong Kong, and it is the only lottery legally sold there¹. If you are in Hong Kong, buying a ticket is a normal, lawful transaction, whether you are a citizen, a resident or a visitor.

The complication is what happens outside Hong Kong. The Mark Six is a Hong Kong product, and other places run their own lotteries under their own rules. In mainland China, lottery is a state-licensed business, and no unit or individual may issue or sell lottery tickets without state approval⁷. That means the Mark Six is not a product you can legally buy or resell inside mainland China, and the authorities there treat unlicensed lottery sales as a serious matter.

In Thailand, the government lottery is a form of gambling that is legal, but it is the government's own product, not an open market⁹. In India, the picture varies by state: lotteries are legal in 12 states and 5 Union territories but banned in 17 states¹⁰. So a Mark Six ticket is not something you can assume is fine to buy or sell just because you are used to lotteries being legal at home.

Games and payments

The core game is simple: pick six different numbers from 1 to 49¹. The draw produces six Drawn Numbers plus a special number⁵. The Sixth Prize is won by any entry that matches three of the drawn numbers plus the special number¹¹. Higher tiers require more matches, and the top prize is the jackpot.

The jackpot is not fixed. It depends on ticket sales and on how many draws have rolled over without a top-tier winner, which is why the first prize can grow to very large figures. In September 2012, a Mark Six draw carried a jackpot of HKD 100,000,000⁴. In 2003, the highest first prize topped HKD 70,000,000⁴. Those are the kind of numbers that draw casual players in when a jackpot rolls over.

Draws are held every Tuesday and Thursday, plus a Saturday or Sunday draw when there is no horse racing, which averages about three draws a week². Some Golden Mark Six draws, the special bigger-jackpot events, are held on Fridays².

For payment, the Mark Six works like most lotteries: you pay for your entry, you get a ticket, and the ticket is your claim. If you buy at a branch, you pay in cash at the counter. If you play through the Jockey Club's online channels, you pay from your account balance. Prizes are paid according to the Jockey Club's published rules, and the ticket is the record of your entry.

Ownership and history

The Mark Six has been part of Hong Kong life since 1975, when the Jockey Club took it over⁶. Over the decades it has settled into a fixed weekly rhythm: Tuesday and Thursday draws as the backbone, with a weekend draw added when racing does not fill the slot².

The format has stayed stable. It is still a "pick 6 from 49" game⁶, and the prize structure still pays out more than half of the money taken in to winners³. That stability is part of why the Mark Six is so familiar to anyone who has lived in Hong Kong: the rules do not change much, and the draw nights are predictable.

The Jockey Club's role is worth understanding if you are new to the game. It is not a commercial lottery operator in the usual sense. It is a not-for-profit body, and the 15 percent of Mark Six revenue that goes to the Lotteries Fund is directed into charitable and community work³. That is the trade-off Hong Kong has made: one operator, one lottery, and the surplus goes back into the community rather than to shareholders.

If you want to go deeper on the Hong Kong side, the Mark Six lottery in Hong Kong page covers who can play and how, and the Hong Kong Jockey Club page explains the operator behind the game. If you are interested in how Hong Kong's other betting products work, there are pages on HKJC football betting and on the two racecourses, Happy Valley and Sha Tin.

For readers elsewhere in Asia, the lottery landscape is different. Japan runs its own numbers games, including Takarakuji, and China has its own state lotteries such as the China Sports Lottery. Thailand's government lottery is covered on the Government Lottery Office page, and Vietnam's on the Vietlott page. None of these are the Mark Six, and none of them let you buy a Hong Kong ticket locally.