Brazilians bet their dreams on New Year's lottery

Thousands of Brazilians pursuing their life-changing dreams are buying lottery tickets for the New Year's lotto jackpot (“the Mega Sena da Virada”, shortened to “Mega da Virada”) as if they were tickets to paradise. This time, gamblers are going for the special end-of-year jackpot, which is estimated at over $89.6 million. Traveling, buying a house, buying a car, and helping their families out are among their top motivations.

Sales began on December 25 and run until next Wednesday (Dec. 31). Based on calculations made by Caixa, the Federal Savings Bank which runs Brazil's national lottery, in case a single gambler were to win the jackpot alone and put all the prize money into savings, that would give them an income of about $522,700 a month, or $17,000 a day.

At his second try at the Mega Sena da Virada, Roilson Moreira has not decided what he would do with the prize in case he won. Married with two children and working as a waiter at 37, he says he would start off with a holiday trip to help him think it over.

João Cordeiro, a civil servant, also considers a family trip as his first step as a potential winner. Then, he says he would put the money into a savings account for interest until he decided what he would do with all the money. He's been playing the Mega da Virada since it was first launched in 2009.

Lorena Passos, a 24-year-old law student, has joined a family syndicate. “I'm going for the classic buy house – buy car – help family dream,” she said.

The “Mega-Sena” is the standard six-number lotto. Under Brazil's national lottery rules, contestants can choose a minimum of 6 and a maximum of 15 numbers from 01 to 60. Current entry prices vary between $0.93 and $4,600 depending on how many numbers are chosen, based on the number of six-number variations the entries contain.

Draws take place every Wednesday and Saturday. According to Caixa, the raw prize is funded by 46% of the ticket sales. Out of the resulting amount, 35% is split between gamblers who score all six numbers drawn (which is called “Sena”, or six-number game), 19% is paid out to those who score five numbers (the “Quina”), 19% is paid out for four-number winners (the “Quadra”), and 22% will accumulate to add to the Sena prizes every five 5 times. The remaining 5% is retained to add to the six-number prizes in a special draw at the end of the year (the Mega Sena da Virada).

In the first Mega da Virada in 2009, the jackpot was $54.1 million, and the prize amounts has been increasing ever since.

Translated by Mayra Borges