Saturday April 18, 2026 | VICTORIA, BC [9:44 am]
by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
Since the beginning of the year, the lottery system in Canada has been promoting the Lotto Max ‘new game’… with more prizes and more chances to win.
Well, so far the new game — which has applied so far to the April 14 and April 17 draws, has produced zero winners for the newly added MaxPlus prizes.
The MaxPlus component of Lotto Max offers several $100,000 prizes… multiple options per game by matching a set of seven automatically-generated numbers.
Of course the idea of changing-up the game format was to draw new interest — including by way of a higher maximum jackpot amount and another row of possible winning number sets, and a claim of more chances to win. And no doubt the ‘more chances to win’ sounds more equitable in tough financial times.
But lotteries generate revenues for provincial coffers and there wasn’t about to be any real boost in multiple big winners.
What is it they say about lotteries and gambling in general? If you have no money it’s a chance for hope, if you have some money it’s a generous gift to the government, or if you’re financially comfortable and you don’t need to risk your gambling ‘investment’ then your bet is a almost certainly a waste.
And yet playing lottery games is more popular than ever, because, you know, you might win!
In fact, in some ways it could be better to win the smaller $100,000 Max Plus prize than to be a mega-winner. In the sense that adding $100,000 to your bank account is nowadays a gentle bump to pay off a mortgage or get out of debt and buy a car. It doesn’t go far in this economy. And your friends don’t even need to know.
Winning $500,000 by matching all four numbers in the Lotto Max Extra draw is pretty good! That can make a big shift in your financial wellness without upsetting the apple cart of your life.
By winning a million dollars you can buy a house (or half-mortgage, half-house) or secure your retirement nest-egg. Still not a ripple in most of the rest of your life (except you might be less stressed).
But winning a mega-prize of multi-millions… that’s when your entire life will change. You’ll probably need to hire a financial advisor or accountant, change things up at your bank, and deal with the changes in your family and social life now that you’re ‘the lucky one’ or ‘the rich one’. You’ll need to buy new sorts of things, use your time differently, deal with changes in family and friends. Suddenly, your dreams become options for the new reality. Sure, you’re rich now, but everything will change.
Anyhow, next week’s Lotto Max jackpot on April 21 is estimated at $40 million, and who wouldn’t want to win that?
Lotto Max April 17 winning numbers:
Meanwhile, here are the April 17, 2026 main Lotto Max draw winning numbers from last night’s draw:
There was no winner of the $30 million jackpot on April 17, 2026 or even the $186,194.20 prize for matching six of seven numbers. And 44 people each won $4,311.70.
Reader comments:
Reader comments welcome. How much of a difference does it make when you win under $100, over a thousand, or $100,000 or more? Email to letters@islandsocialtrends.com or post on our Island Social Trends Bluesky page.
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