La Primitiva; 255 year old Spanish lottery reaches Australia

La Primitiva is the newest international lottery players can win from at The Lottery Office! It’s matched with Spain’s La Primitiva which was established in 1763, making it well over 250 years old. To put it into context, that’s 7 years before Captain Cook arrived in Australia and 6 years before he landed in New Zealand. ‘La Primitiva’ translates literally into ‘The Primitive’, and given its age, it’s little wonder why. Clearly this lottery has a lot going for it; nothing substandard lasts this long.

Its highest ever jackpot of AUD$160 million is just one of the many reasons why this well-loved game is still alive and kicking. Players also love the chance to win a prize by simply matching one number! Read on to find out how.

Spanish lottery La Primitiva still going strong after all this time

This early Spanish lottery was a true pioneer. In 1763 the government at the time needed some more revenue, but didn’t want to create a new tax. And so, the ‘Loteria Real’ (‘Royal Lottery’) was born, with 75% of sales going towards prizes.

In 1812 it was renamed to lotería primitiva (‘primitive lottery’). Unfortunately the decision was made to put a temporary end to its run in 1862. It remained mothballed until 1985, when it was brought back by royal decree after its 123 year hiatus, renamed as the La Primitiva lottery we know today. It’s still played and enjoyed to this day. Long may it continue!

La Primitiva’s unique number system

Just like the matching Spanish La Primitiva lottery, our La Primitiva is unique in that it has two different bonus balls; the ‘Reintegro’ (which translates to ‘refund’ in English) and the ‘Complementario’ (which means ‘complementary’ in English).

When selecting your numbers to play, you must select 6 main numbers from a pool of 1 to 49, and 1 Reintegro number from a separate pool of 0 to 9. For each ticket you play in the La Primitiva, you must select 1 Reintegro number. Each ticket has up to 8 games. This means, for example, that if you buy 10 games, you get 2 tickets, and must choose 2 Reintegro numbers.

The Complementario works like a traditional supplementary number commonly found in many other lotteries. It’s drawn from the main pool of numbers and is needed to win the third division prize, but it isn’t used anywhere else. You don’t need to choose a Complementario number; it’s simply selected as part of the draw process.

Simply matching the Reintegro number will be enough to get you a prize, and if you match it along with the 6 main numbers you’ll take out the first division prize (or as it’s called in Spainish, the ‘categoría especial’). Starting at AUD$3 million, there’s no limit to how high the jackpot can go. When it’s not won, it rolls over to the next draw, growing larger each time it’s not claimed. On top of this, it only costs $3.70 to play La Primitiva.

Don’t be fooled by the affordable price, though; this lottery has some great prizes on offer!

The Joker

La Primitiva also has a unique feature called the ‘The Joker’. This has 7 prize divisions that are separate to the main draw, and allows participants to win additional prizes of anywhere from €1 (AUD$1.60) all the way up to €1 million (AUD$1.6 million)!

You are automatically assigned a 7 digit number when you play The Joker. A Joker number is assigned to each ticket you buy (remember, each ticket can have up to 8 games on it). This number is unique, so there can only be one first prize winner. Winner takes all for the main prize! There are also lots of other great prizes too, including AUD$16,000! Check out The Joker prizes below:

It costs an extra $3.70 per ticket to play The Joker.

For each game you buy in our own government licensed La Primitiva Lottery, we buy a matching ticket in the corresponding La Primitiva draw in Spain. We pay you the exact same prize value that we collect on our matching ticket(s). This is how we can guarantee you receive all of your winnings. We send you an email after each draw that you participate in to let you know if you’re a winner.

You can also just go online to confirm any wins in your account on our website or with our Lottery Office app for Android and iOS devices. This is a lot easier than having to consulta los resultados (‘check the results’) yourself!

How to get more chances to win La Primitiva

There are a few ways you can increase your chances of winning from La Primitiva draws.

The bottom line is that just like all lotteries, it’s a numbers game; that the more games you play the higher your chances of winning. Playing more could mean entering more games into a single draw, or spreading out your game play across multiple draws. One La Primitiva draw is held each week, on Tuesday AEST. There are plenty of regular opportunities to win.

Another option is to play our All Lotteries Combo, which gives you the chance to win from all of our lotteries at the same time. We also offer lottery syndicates, which are a great way to get more chances to win, for less money.

When buying your games in our matching lottery, we offer the choice to play your numbers in either 1, 2, 3, 5, 10 or 20 draws. It should be noted that statistically it doesn’t matter how you decide on which lottery numbers you play. Whether you elect to have us randomly generate them for you with a Quick Play, or whether you use some numbers that are significant to you, they all have exactly the same chance of coming up as winners. It really is anyone’s game! However if you’re determined to use your own numbers (hey, nothing wrong with that), then read our guide on some fun ways to pick them.

As lottery is a game of chance, there are no solid guarantees that a big win will come about by playing more. But on the flip side, you could also win the jackpot from your first time playing, just like 18 year old Charlie Lagarde who won in her first ever game! It could be anyone’s turn next. Will it be yours?

Share this via: