November 1965 |
A referendum is held on the establishment of a State lottery. |
November 1966 |
State Parliament passes the Bill and Royal Assent is given to establish the Lotteries Commission of South Australia and appoints South Australia's Assistant Auditor General, Mr J W (Wally) Goulter as Chairman. |
May 1967 |
The first lottery tickets go on sale on 15 May 1967 from the Walsh Building (corner of Gawler Place and what is now Rundle Mall) and agencies throughout the State. |
May 1967 |
South Australia’s first lottery is drawn by Premier, the Honourable Frank Walsh. |
May 1967 |
The first lottery prize of $14,000 is won by Mrs C T Hargraves of Fitzroy. |
August 1967 |
A One Dollar Lottery is introduced and offers a first prize of $30,000. |
March 1973 |
Saturday Cross Lotto is introduced (a 6 from 32 game), making South Australia the second State in Australia to introduce such a game. |
September 1974 |
The first of a series of 60 cent lotteries is drawn. Subsequently, $3, $4, $5, $10 and $20 lotteries are created to coincide with events such as the Adelaide Cup, Football Carnival and the Grand National Hurdle. |
May 1977 |
SA Lotteries relocates its head office to 23 Rundle Mall, Adelaide and celebrates by holding its first $1 million lottery. |
December 1978 |
SA Lotteries pioneers the Australian launch of instant money games, now known as Instant Scratchies. |
March 1981 |
Lottery organisations from South Australia, Victoria, Western Australia (and eventually Queensland and New South Wales) form the Australian Lotto Bloc to enable a larger Cross Lotto Division One prize pool ($1.2 million) than could be achieved by a single State. Except for prize pooling, each Bloc member remains legally, economically and organisationally independent. |
October 1983 |
Wednesday X Lotto, with a game matrix of 6 from 39, goes on sale at 50 cents per game. |
December 1983 |
The traditional One Dollar Lottery is discontinued. |
January 1984 |
Based on the weekly drawing of a five-digit number, the 7 Day Sweep is introduced at $1 per game and is swiftly followed by $2 and $4 Sweeps. |
May 1984 |
The traditional Two Dollar Lottery is discontinued. |
November 1984 |
A fully computerised online lottery system is installed to allow for entries to be purchased up to the day of the draw, and also to allow for the introduction of the Easi-Pick facility. |
January 1986 |
The 7 Day Sweep is discontinued. |
February 1986 |
Super 66 is introduced as an add-on game to X Lotto. |
October 1986 |
The Lucky Dates game is introduced whereby players choose two dates from 366 possible days of the year. |
April 1988 |
A 12-game X Lotto coupon is introduced. |
May 1988 |
SA Lotteries celebrates its 21st birthday by announcing it has raised over $298 million for the community. |
January 1989 |
SA Lotteries’ total sales reach $1 billion dollars. |
May 1989 |
SA Lotteries assumes responsibility for the administration of the Australian Soccer Pools Ltd game known as The Pools, and an Australia-wide Soccer Pools Bloc is formed. |
January 1990 |
The Lucky Dates game is discontinued. |
March 1990 |
SA Lotteries introduces Club Keno across its State-wide agency network. Keno combines all the features desired by modern players: a dynamic computer generated game, fast action with draws held every five minutes, instant cash payouts of up to $1,000 and large jackpot prizes. |
April 1990 |
The last traditional lottery ($3) is drawn. |
August 1990 |
SA Lotteries releases an Instant Scratchies Money Tree ticket, which offers two top prizes of $250,000 and the world’s best return to player for an instant money game. |
October 1990 |
Drawn on Monday nights, X Lotto Xtra is introduced as an additional game for South Australian players only. The game is renamed SA Lotto in 1999 and X Lotto in 2010. |
February 1991 |
The cost of entries for Saturday X Lotto increases from 25 cents to 30 cents per game. |
October 1992 |
Wednesday Lotto changes to Thursday Lotto. |
1993 |
Television commercials for Instant Scratchies, using Frank the talking dog, are judged the best in the world in an international competition. |
July 1993 |
A 14-game Lotto coupon is introduced. |
February 1994 |
Oz Lotto commences Australia-wide on Tuesday nights. |
March 1994 |
The Easiplay Club is introduced to replace the Customer Subscription Service and offer improved prize security for players. |
September 1995 |
Saturday X Lotto becomes Saturday Lotto. |
November 1995 |
A Saturday Lotto double draw is introduced, along with a price increase to 40 cents per game. |
May 1996 |
Powerball replaces Thursday Lotto. |
February 1997 |
Saturday Lotto reverts to a single draw. |
November 1997 |
SA Lotteries' Keno game goes on sale in the ACT via the Australian Capital Territory Totalisator Agency Board (ACTTAB). |
February 1998 |
The Keno prize structure is altered to replace Spot 8, 9 and 10 jackpots with fixed prizes of $50,000, $150,000 and $1 million respectively. |
June 1999 |
A new on-line lottery system is installed to deliver additional features including 15-game Maxi-Pick tickets and Top-Up functionality. |
May 2000 |
The first Extended Play Instant Scratchies game (Crossword) is launched. |
February 2001 |
A Spot 10 Keno jackpot is reintroduced offering a minimum prize pool of $1 million. |
November 2003 |
SA Lotteries’ State-based Monday night Lotto game, SA Lotto, celebrates the introduction of a Wednesday night draw with an increased Division One prize pool of $400,000. |
March 2004 |
Easiplay Club celebrates its 10th birthday by offering members the chance to win $10,000 each month until February 2005. |
February 2005 |
SA Lotteries relocates its Head Office from Rundle Mall to new premises at 24-25 Greenhill Road, Wayville. |
April 2005 |
SA Lotteries Head Office is officially opened by the Hon. Kevin Foley MP, Deputy Premier of South Australia. |
October 2005 |
Oz Lotto changes its game matrix from 6 from 45 to 7 from 45 and adds two additional prize divisions. The new game format promises to deliver ‘bigger jackpots, more often’. |
April 2006 |
SA Lotto becomes Monday and Wednesday Lotto, as SA Lotteries joins forces with NSW and WA to bring South Australians increased Division One prize pools of $1 million every Monday and $750,000 every Wednesday. |
October 2006 |
SA Lotteries launches an SMS results service, enabling players to receive game results direct to their mobile phones. |
April 2007 |
Legislation passes to increase the legal age to play lottery games in South Australia from 16 to 18 years. The penalty for selling to, or buying a ticket or claiming a prize on behalf of, a person aged less than 18 years increases from $500 to $5,000. |
May 2007 |
SA Lotteries celebrates its 40th Anniversary. |
June 2007 |
SA Lotteries launches LuckySA Lottery, a game which couples the charm of a traditional lottery draw with the excitement of new technology. |
June 2007 |
SA Lotteries launches its inaugural $10 Instant Scratchies ticket Cash Celebration, which offers a record prize pool of $3 million. |
December 2007 |
The inaugural LuckySA Lottery is drawn. A woman from Adelaide's southern suburbs wins the $500,000 top prize with ticket number 154620. Another 17 local players share $58,000 in minor prize money. |
March 2008 |
SA Lotteries extends its long-standing partnership with the South Australian National Football League (SANFL) to introduce SA Lotteries Footy Express, a free bus service transporting football fans to and from AAMI Stadium for Australian Football League games. |
March 2008 |
SA Lotteries' Keno game goes on sale via selected South Australian Totalisator Agency Board (SATAB) outlets. |
June 2008 |
SA Lotteries expands its SMS results service with ‘Dividend on Demand’, enabling players to receive prize dividends direct to their mobile phones. |
August 2008 |
SA Lotteries launches a corporate advertising campaign ‘Dreams Live Here’ to communicate its community returns via prizes to players and profits to hospitals. |
October 2008 |
Tattersall’s (Victoria) joins the Monday and Wednesday Lotto game, which now offers a guaranteed $1 million Division One prize pool per draw. |
June 2009 |
Oz Lotto offers Australia’s largest lottery jackpot of $90 million on 30 June. An overwhelming player response resulted in a record $106,549,984 Division One prize pool, which was shared by an Adelaide man and a Queensland couple. A man from Adelaide’s western suburbs wins South Australia’s largest lottery prize of $53.3 million with an Oz Lotto ticket purchased at Lizzy’s Café at the Royal Adelaide Hospital. |
July 2009 |
SA Lotteries celebrates a record annual contribution of $95 million to South Australia's Hospitals Fund, bringing the total return to hospitals to almost $2 billion. |
July 2009 |
The first annuity-style Instant Scratchies ticket, Win for Life, is launched, offering players the chance to win a top prize of $75,000 every year for ten years. |
July 2009 |
Powerball jackpots to a $80 million, marking a record Division One prize pool for the Thursday game. |
September 2009 |
New point of selling terminals are installed throughout SA Lotteries’ agency network, including agent touch-screen terminals, handheld barcode scanners, ticket printers and full-colour customer display units. |
October 2009 |
SA Lotteries becomes one of only two lottery operators in the world to achieve the highest level (4) of accreditation under the World Lotteries Association (WLA) Responsible Gambling Framework. |
December 2009 |
SA Lotteries launches a free iPhone App to provide immediate access to game results, random number generators, an agency locator and Instant Scratchies ticket gallery. |
May 2010 |
SA Lotteries replaces its online lottery system on 16 May to deliver greater benefits to agents and players. Enhancements enabled by the system include a new Keno add-on game, Keno Coin Toss; self-service ticket checkers; 36-game Maxi-Picks; and the ‘Play it Again’ functionality. |
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Saturday, Monday and Wednesday Lotto becomes Saturday, Monday and Wednesday X Lotto, as players are again able to use crosses to mark their numbers on game coupons. |
October 2010 |
SA Lotteries introduces the next generation of Instant Scratchies tickets, featuring a barcode which can be read by self-service ticket checkers to tell players if they have won a prize. |
January 2011 |
South Australia's favourite lottery game, Saturday X Lotto, is revised to offer an all-new sixth prize division, resulting in the return of twice the number of total prizes to players. |