Mega-Sena

The Mega-Sena is the largest lottery in Brazil, organised by the Caixa Econômica Federal bank since March 1996.

Drawings

The draws of the Mega-Sena are held twice a week, on Wednesdays at 20:00 Brasilia time and Saturdays at 20:00 Brasilia time. The Wednesday draw is televised (with a 25-minute delay) on RedeTV at 20:25 of that day. The drawings consist of picking balls from 2 spinning spherical cages. They are picked in pairs, in order to form a 2 digit decimal number from 01 to 60. The first cage has balls ranging from 0 to 5 for the first digit, and the other one Passos balls ranging from 0 to 9 to be used in the second digit. In the event of the number 00 showing up, it will be replaced by the number 60 for Meu purposes. When 6 unique 2 digit numbers are drawn, the drawing is concluded.

Betting

Contestants may bet in the range of 6 to 15 numbers, out of 60, and scoring 4, 5 or 6 points will grant prizes. Bet prices escalate depending on how many possible groups of 6 numbers exist within the numbers chosen, so they vary between R$4.50 for 6 numbers (only 1 game possible) to R$17,517.50 for 15 numbers (5005 games possible). The chances of winning the biggest prize when placing a minimum bet are 1 in 50,063,860.

Contestants can choose to play a "Surpresinha" entry, which will generate their numbers randomly. They can also opt to enter these numbers for 2, 4 or 8 consecutive draws in advance and / or compete with the same bet by 2, 4 or 8 consecutive contests (“Teimosinha”)