Get your group on: With Friday's LOTTO MAX offering $70 million in prizing, there are lots of millions to go around

TORONTO, May 17, 2012 /CNW/ - Team up to take it to the max! With an estimated total of $70 million in top prizing up for grabs in this Friday's LOTTO MAX draw, playing as a group makes sense. Whether you join together with coworkers, friends, family or your spouse, it's more the merrier! This Friday's LOTTO MAX jackpot totals an estimated $50 million with an estimated 20 additional and separate $1 million prizes.

Group play is a popular way to play the lottery:

• Five of the last seven LOTTO MAX jackpots have been won by groups:
• Three by couples
• One by a group of four friends
• One by a group of 12 coworkers
• A recent phone survey conducted by OLG reports that the average number of people that make up a LOTTO MAX group are 13. This survey also uncovered:
• 53% of LOTTO MAX groups play regularly
• 69% of those who play LOTTO MAX with a group play with coworkers; 25% play with friends or family and 5% play both ways
• The top two reasons for playing as part of a group? More chances to win than playing alone and it's a convenient way to play
• Just this week, a group of seven coworkers split a $21 million LOTTO 6/49 jackpot

Essential Tips for Lottery Play as a Group:

Organizing and tracking your group activity can make life easier if and when your group hits the jackpot:

• Choose one person to act as the group leader to coordinate group members, collect payments and validate tickets.
• Record group participation on the Lottery Group Play Form, available for download on OLG.ca.
• If you plan to go on vacation before a draw, make sure you pay your group leader in advance and have those payments documented.
• Agree on, and document, how member participation will work in the event of unexpected absences, such as illness or life events, that prevent a member from paying before a draw.
• The group leader should sign the ticket immediately after the purchase. Write "in trust" by the signature line to show that it is a group play ticket.
• Make copies or computer scans of the ticket for each group member, so everyone has a copy.

For each $5 play, LOTTO MAX players receive three sets of seven numbers ranging from one to forty-nine. Players must match all seven numbers, in any one set, to win the jackpot and the MAXMILLIONS prizes.

Players can purchase tickets at authorized OLG retailers until 9 p.m. Friday, May 18, 2012 for the draw that evening.

OLG is a provincial agency responsible for province-wide lottery games and gaming facilities. Since 1975, OLG lotteries, casinos, slots, and resort casinos have generated more than $34 billion for the benefit of the Province of Ontario. Gaming proceeds support Ontario's hospitals, amateur sport, recreational and cultural activities, communities, provincial priority programs such as health care and education, and local and provincial charities and non-profit organizations through the Ontario Trillium Foundation.

Know your limit, play within it!

THE ONTARIO PROBLEM GAMBLING HELPLINE 1-888-230-3505

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PDF available at: http://stream1.newswire.ca/media/2012/05/17/20120517_C8798_DOC_EN_13906.pdf

For photos, more information and to speak with a spokesperson, contact:             
OLG Media Relations Line
1-888-946-6716