Looking to try your luck playing Costa Rica’s national lottery? With vendors selling tickets on every street corner shouting “¡Los chances!”, the lottery is an iconic part of daily life. But between the Lotería Nacional, La Raspas scratch cards, Pitazo soccer lotto, and more, the array of games with varying rules and prizes can be confusing.
This comprehensive guide breaks down everything you need to know to play the Costa Rica lottery like a local. Learn the differences between the major lottery games, how to pick numbers and buy tickets, prize structures, when drawings are held, and expert tips to up your odds. With the right know-how, you’ll be ready to decipher those erratically numbered tickets and hopefully have fun winning like the Ticos do.
But how do you play it?
“Los chances! Los chances! Diez y ocho! Veinte dos!” You’ve heard the screaming sales pitch, you’ve seen the stacks of mysterious printed-paper sheets for sale on every street corner – you figure, this must be the Costa Rican lottery.
In Costa Rica, there are six different lottery games you can almost always play: Lotería Nacional, La Lotería Popular (Los Chances), Lotería Instantanea (Raspaditas), Nuevos Tiempos, Lotto and Pitazo.
There are also a varying number of extra (extraordinario) lotteries throughout the year, usually coinciding with a holiday such as Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day or the biggest – Christmas. The extra lotteries have their own names, like Gordo Navideño for the Christmas Lottery, but they also bear the names of either Lotería Popular or Lotería Nacional.
All these games of chance are produced, distributed and managed by the Social Protection Council (Junta de Protección Social, or JPS), whose mission is “to help strengthen the social welfare in Costa Rica, generating resources to transfer to state and non-state institutions and social organizations, for the benefit of the most vulnerable groups, through the efficient management of National Lotteries and other games of chance.”
The money collected by JPS that is not given out in prizes stays with them as profit, is paid out in taxes to the government, and goes towards hospitals, retirement homes, and programs such as cancer prevention, the fight against AIDS, the fight against alcoholism, and the Red Cross.
To play the Costa Rican lottery, you must first understand the differences between the games of chance and the traditional lotteries. The four games of chance each have their own set of unique rules. One (Raspadita) is a scratch-off game, and three (Nuevos Tiempos, Lotto y Pitazo) are electronic games.
The lotteries (National Lottery, Los Chances, and the extra lotteries) are all played the same way, but have varying tickets (billetes) and prizes (premios) and are played on different days. Each ticket has three numbers: the contest number (sorteo no.), a three-digit series number (series), and a two-digit ticket number (número).
You play by purchasing a ticket with the two-digit ticket number you desire; this is the number you hear the vendors calling out on the street. You can buy one ticket up to however many constitute a sheet (billete completo). The amount of tickets on a sheet varies based on the particular lottery.
To win the biggest prize, you need to match the series number and the ticket number and also have the whole sheet of tickets. There are numerous other ways to win smaller prizes, all of which are listed on the back of each lottery ticket.
Now let’s look at the particulars of each individual game.
The National Lottery, La Lotería Nacional, originated in 1885 with the intention of raising funds for the public hospital, San Juan de Dios. It is a traditional Costa Rican game of tickets printed in series from 000 to 999, with numbers from 00 to 99, in three issues (emisiones).
There are many winners with this system, but to win the full jackpot, you must have the winning ticket number and all the tickets in the series. Vendors will sell fractions of a sheet, as low as one ticket, so the most common prize is only a percentage of the full jackpot. A full sheet in the National Lottery has 10 tickets.
The National Lottery numbers are picked weekly on Sundays at 7 p.m. You can watch the drawing on TV, call JPS for the results at 2522-2000, or check the numbers online
The Popular Lottery
The Popular Lottery, La Lotería Popular or more commonly Los Chances, is very similar to The National Lottery. It was created in 1940 with the purpose of raising funds for San Juan de Dios Hospital and to end the illegal lottery that was called Los Chances. The series runs from 000 to 999, with ticket numbers from 00 to 99 in two issues. A full sheet in the Popular Lottery has 10 tickets.
There are many prizes, but they are not as big as The National Lottery. To win the full jackpot, you must have the winning ticket number and all the tickets in the series. Players most commonly buy a fraction of a sheet, so the most common prize is only a percentage of the full jackpot.
The Popular Lottery numbers are picked weekly on Tuesdays and Fridays at 6:55 p.m. You can watch the drawing on TV, call JPS for the results at 2522-2000, or check the numbers online
Instant Lottery
The Instant Lottery, La Lotería Instantánea or more commonly Raspadita or Raspas, is a scratch-off lottery game. There are several of these produced each year.
Each scratch-off card game has various prizes in differing amounts and three ways to win. For example, you could win the May Instant Lottery by scratching a ₡1,000 ($2) ticket to reveal the same number three times (you win the amount shown and can collect it instantly from the vendor), by collecting several tickets to make the six-letter word puerta (this wins you the jackpot of ₡65 million, or $129,000), or by scratching to reveal the word raspa (this gets you a chance to spin the “Wheel of Fortune” on live TV and whatever number the ball lands on is the amount you win).
The New Times Lottery
The New Times Lottery, Los Nuevos Tiempos, replaced the Times Lottery, Los Tiempos, in June 2013 with the goals to make the game easier to play and to combat illegal lottery sales.
To play this electronic lottery game, choose your favorite number from 00 to 99 or Gallo Tapado, a machine pick. You have a choice of four different winning configurations that are drawn two times a day at 12:55 p.m. and 6:55 p.m.
These are the four types of winning configurations:
- Exact Match: You win 70 times the investment.
- Reversible Number: 35 times the investment.
- First number: seven times the investment
- Last number: seven times the investment
Each configuration is considered a separate play. You can play up to 14 draws in the future. These drawings may be consecutive or if you prefer, you can play only 12:55 p.m. draws or only 6:55 p.m. draws.
For each play you can invest from ₡100 to ₡50,000 ($100).
Buy tickets in any Punto Max vendor location. You can find them here
You can check to see if you won at any Punto Max location in Costa Rica, by calling 4100-2300, or online
Lotto
Lotto is an electronic lottery game. You pick five numbers from 01 to 35 or Gallo Tapado, machine pick. Easy.
There are four ways to win:
- If you have correctly picked the five numbers drawn, in any order, you win the jackpot, el gran acumulado millonario.
- If you have four numbers, you win ₡50,000.
- If you have three numbers, you win ₡5,000 ($10).
- If you have two numbers, you win the value of the ticket.
The drawings are held every Wednesday and Saturday at 6:55 p.m. Each ticket costs ₡600 ($1.20). If no one wins the jackpot, it gets carried over to the next drawing and continues to increase in value.
Buy tickets in any Punto Max vendor location. You can find them here
You can check to see if you won at any Punto Max location in Costa Rica, by calling 4100-2300, or online
Pitazo
Pitazo, or Kickoff, is an electronic lottery game for soccer (fútbol) lovers.
Each ticket has 11 soccer matches listed and for each one, you pick whether the home team wins, the away team wins or the match ends in a tie. You are allowed to pick two or three results for just one match, but there is a limit to the amount of matches you can do this for.
There are three ways to win:
- If you correctly pick the results of all 11 matches, you win the jackpot.
- If you pick 9 or 10 matches correctly, you win a percentage of the sales for that schedule of matches.
- If you pick 8, you win the value of your ticket.
Each ticket costs ₡500 ($1).
Buy tickets in any Punto Max vendor location. You can find them here
You can check to see if you won at any Punto Max location in Costa Rica, by calling 4100-2300, or online:
¡Buena suerte!
