Baloto
Baloto is Colombia’s official online lottery. The company that operates Baloto is Gtech de Colombia, which was a awarded a licence to bring the game to online lottery players in December 1999. The first Baloto draw was held just over a year later in January 2001 and the game was an instant success, with players incredibly keen to try and win themselves a Baloto jackpot. The Baloto jackpot, known as the "Acumulado Multimillonario", has a minimum value of $2 million, but like most lottery games the jackpot can roll over to the next draw if it isn’t won, and repeated rollovers can generate some truly gargantuan jackpots.
The Baloto game is a 6 from 45 lottery, so Baloto players have to choose 6 numbers from the range 1 to 45 and match all of them to win the jackpot. Baloto players can choose their own selections or take advantage of an Automática feature which, like the Quick Pick and Lucky Dip features in other lottery games, generates a random set of numbers on the player’s behalf. Draws take place twice a week every Wednesday and Saturday, and any set of numbers can be entered for up to eight consecutive draws at a time.
Baloto has four prize levels, including the jackpot itself. The numbers required to win a prize at each level, and the odds of doing so, are as follows:
Baloto Prize Levels
| Baloto Prize Level | How to Win | Odds of Success |
|---|---|---|
| Jackpot (Acumulado Multimillonario) | Match 6 Baloto numbers | 1 in 8,145,060 |
| 2 | Match 5 Baloto numbers | 1 in 34,808 |
| 3 | Match 4 Baloto numbers | 1 in 733 |
| 4 | Match 3 Baloto numbers | 1 in 45 |
Baloto players must be aged 18 or over and those who play Baloto online will be sent an email informing them of any prize that they have won after the draw has taken place. Of course, it is still a good idea for players to check their own Baloto results just in case a notification email gets overlooked or accidentally filtered as spam.
All Baloto prizes must be claimed within 60 days of the draw taking place. This is quite a short deadline when compared with other lottery games, so it is essential that anyone who wins a Baloto prize makes their claim as soon as possible. Failing to claim a Baloto prize before the deadline would result in the winning player actually forfeiting the prize, which would be unfortunate in any circumstances but particularly devastating if the prize just happened to be the Baloto jackpot!
