TOTO in 30 seconds
TOTO is Singapore Pools’ lotto, and since October 2014 it’s been a 6/49 game. You pick 6 numbers from 1 to 49. Every Monday and Thursday at 6.30pm, the draw picks 6 winning numbers plus one Additional Number. Match enough of them and you win one of seven prize groups.
| Quick fact | TOTO |
|---|---|
| Format | 6 numbers from 1–49, plus 1 Additional Number drawn |
| Draws | Mon and Thu, 6.30pm SGT, plus special Friday draws |
| Price | S$1 per Ordinary entry |
| Group 1 | Starts from S$1,000,000 |
| Group 1 odds | 1 in 13,983,816 |
| Any prize | About 1 in 54 |
Simple game, but there’s quite a bit of maths hiding behind it. Once you understand what each Group pays and what a System entry really is, you’ll play smarter. Whether you huat or not, that one is up to the draw lor.
TOTO odds: how hard is Group 1, really?
There are 13,983,816 different ways to choose 6 numbers out of 49. One Ordinary entry covers exactly one of them, so your Group 1 odds are 1 in 13,983,816. Walao, that’s a big number. Here’s how to picture it.
Worked example: say you buy S$10 of Ordinary entries every draw. Two draws a week makes 104 draws a year, so that’s 1,040 entries a year. On average you’d need 13,983,816 ÷ 1,040 = about 13,446 years to hit Group 1 once. Not exactly retirement planning leh.
The small prizes are much friendlier. Your chance of winning something, from Group 1 down to Group 7, is about 1 in 54 per entry. Most of those wins are Group 7 (3 numbers, S$10), which comes in at roughly 1 in 61.
The odds in the prize table on this page are our own maths, worked out from the 6/49 format. Every draw is random, and past results don’t change the next draw one bit.
Group 1 to Group 7: what each prize pays
TOTO has two kinds of prizes. Groups 1 to 4 share the prize pool, so the amount depends on sales and on how many winners there are. Groups 5 to 7 are fixed, so you always know what you get.
| Group | You match | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | All 6 numbers | 38% of the pool, min S$1,000,000 |
| 2 | 5 + Additional Number | 8% of the pool |
| 3 | 5 numbers | 5.5% of the pool |
| 4 | 4 + Additional Number | 3% of the pool |
| 5 | 4 numbers | S$50 |
| 6 | 3 + Additional Number | S$25 |
| 7 | 3 numbers | S$10 |
Two things people often get blur about:
- The Additional Number only helps Groups 2, 4 and 6. Five numbers plus the Additional Number is Group 2, but the Additional Number alone with nothing else wins nothing.
- Group 1 is shared. The biggest Group 1 we found in Singapore Pools’ official results was S$19,416,913 on 11 Feb 2022, split across 8 winning tickets. That’s about S$2.43 million each: still very shiok, but not S$19 million.
System entries, System Roll and iTOTO
A System entry is just a bundle of Ordinary entries. Pick 7 to 12 numbers and Singapore Pools buys every 6-number combination inside them, at S$1 each.
| Entry | Numbers you pick | Combinations | Cost | Group 1 odds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ordinary | 6 | 1 | S$1 | 1 in 13,983,816 |
| System 7 | 7 | 7 | S$7 | 1 in 1,997,688 |
| System 8 | 8 | 28 | S$28 | 1 in 499,422 |
| System 9 | 9 | 84 | S$84 | 1 in 166,474 |
| System 10 | 10 | 210 | S$210 | 1 in 66,590 |
| System 11 | 11 | 462 | S$462 | 1 in 30,268 |
| System 12 | 12 | 924 | S$924 | 1 in 15,134 |
See the pattern? Better odds always cost more. Your odds per dollar stay exactly the same, but a System entry is great for one thing: when you hit, you hit several Groups at once.
Worked example (System 7, S$7): your 7 numbers contain 4 of the winning six, and none of your other 3 numbers is the Additional Number.
- 3 of your 7 combinations keep all 4 winners, so they each win Group 5: 3 × S$50 = S$150.
- The other 4 combinations each have 3 winners, so they each win Group 7: 4 × S$10 = S$40.
- Total: S$190 back on a S$7 bet. One Ordinary entry with the same 4 numbers would pay only S$50.
Two other ways to play:
- System Roll: choose 5 numbers plus one rolling “R” number, which stands for all the remaining 44 numbers. That’s 44 entries, so S$44 at S$1 each.
- iTOTO: buy units of a Quick Pick System 12 together with other people. Each unit costs S$33, which is the S$924 System 12 divided by 28. Like an office pool, but official.
Group TOTO also lets a group share one bet, printed on up to 10 tickets.
Durian tip: Before you whack a System 12, do the maths: S$924 for a 1 in 15,134 shot. If your budget is S$20 a draw, a System 7 plus a few Ordinary entries gives you the same odds per dollar, and you won’t be sian when nothing comes out.
Hongbao Draw and other special Friday draws
On top of the Monday and Thursday draws, Singapore Pools runs special Friday draws around Chinese New Year (the famous Hongbao Draw), in early January and in August. These are the draws where the whole office starts a pool and the queues at the outlets go round the block.
The pots are bigger. Recent Group 1 prizes from official results:
| Draw | Group 1 |
|---|---|
| 11 Feb 2022 (special Friday draw) | S$19,416,913, shared by 8 tickets |
| 7 Feb 2025 | About S$12.63M |
| 27 Feb 2026 | About S$12.0M |
Same 1 in 13,983,816 odds per entry, but more money at the top. More people buy too, so the chance of sharing Group 1 goes up. Check the exact date on Singapore Pools each year, because it moves with the lunar calendar.
How to buy TOTO, and play lottery games online from Singapore
Officially, TOTO is only sold by Singapore Pools, at its outlets or through its online betting site for players aged 21 and above. No casino sells TOTO, full stop.
What online casinos do have is lottery-style games:
- UWIN33 has a 4D Lottery tab on its SGD site, plus SGD 10 free credit for verifying your account and PayNow deposits from SGD 30. If you like 4D more than TOTO, our Singapore 4D guide and 4D online page explain it.
- Maxim88 has a Lottery tab with QQKeno, plus Evolution’s Mega Ball, a live bingo-lottery show, and an instant rebate of up to 1% with no turnover.
- Lottoland offers lottery betting on overseas jackpots like US Powerball and Hong Kong Mark Six. It doesn’t say whether it accepts Singapore, so check at sign-up.
Chasing a jackpot bigger than any Hongbao? Our Powerball Singapore page has the draw times in SGT, and our lottery draw times in Asia page lists every big draw.
How people pick TOTO numbers
Everyone has a system: birthdays, IC numbers, car plates, last night’s dream, or just Quick Pick. Here’s the honest truth: every combination has exactly the same 1 in 13,983,816 chance. The balls don’t know your birthday, and no “hot number” list can predict the next draw.
One thing you can control is how many people you share with if you win. Lots of people play birthdays, so a ticket made only of numbers 1 to 31 is more likely to share Group 1 with other people. Spreading your picks across 1 to 49, or using Quick Pick, doesn’t improve your odds, but it may mean a bigger slice if you hit. Want to know how randomness works in games? Our RTP and RNG guide explains it simply.
Play TOTO for fun with money you can afford to lose, set a limit before each draw, and if it stops being fun, our responsible gambling page has help.
21+ only. Play responsibly: set a budget and stop when it stops being fun. Need help? NCPG 1800-6-668-668 or our responsible gambling page.
