Lottery Singapore is well-known all over the world as a place where people can win big by placing small bets on different numbers. The country’s 4-D and Toto lotteries are a popular form of gambling, and the latest figures show that people have bet an estimated $9.2 billion on these games in Tote Board’s last financial year, which ended in March 2022 – up about 40 per cent from the previous one.

The company that runs these lotteries is called Singapore Pools, and it is a state-owned subsidiary of the Tote Board, a statutory board under the Ministry of Finance. It has been operating the lotteries since 1968, and is the only operator in Singapore that is legally allowed to run them. In addition, the company is the sole legal bookmaker and totalisator for association football and motor racing betting in the nation.

While the rules vary among the different lottery games offered by Singapore Pools, the general process of making selections and paying for tickets is more or less the same in all of them. The most popular games include 4D, TOTO, and Singapore Sweep. In the former, participants pay $1 for a chance to win the jackpot by matching their chosen numbers with those drawn. In TOTO, 6 numbers plus one “additional number” are drawn for a prize pool that can go as high as $2.8 million.

The last game, Singapore Sweep, is available only at Singapore Pools outlets and national authorised retailers. It is an instant-win game where players can earn prizes for matching their ticket numbers with any of the 19 seven-digit winning numbers that are drawn during each announcement.