Lotto Saarland

Lotto Saarland is the state lottery company in Saarland; its shareholders are the State of Saarland and the Saarland Sports Association (LSVS). It is better known as Saartoto. It is a member of the German Lotto and Totoblock and is officially called “Saarland‑Sporttoto GmbH”. It is one of 16 lottery companies in Germany, each responsible for its own federal state. Around 100 employees work daily for Lotto Saarland, ensuring transparent, secure and customer‑friendly operation of the state games and maintaining contact with over 300 retail outlets across the state. The portfolio includes Lotto 6aus49 with add‑on lotteries Spiel 77 and Super 6, Eurojackpot, the annuity lottery Glücksspirale, KENO, plus 5, TOTO and various scratch (instant) lotteries.

How high are Lotto Saarland’s processing fees?

Please note that you must always submit your entries directly to your state lottery company (i.e., Saarlotto if your primary or permanent residence is in Saarland). Playing online is usually cheaper — we recommend submitting your entries online, because:

Why pay more for the same service?

See for yourself — below we link to detailed comparisons that include all online providers: the Lotto 6aus49 price comparison — lotto price comparison, for Eurojackpot — Eurojackpot price comparison, for the daily lottery KENO — the Keno price comparison, and for the annuity lottery — the Glücksspirale price comparison, updated regularly. Please note that all information is without guarantee of completeness and accuracy; in case of doubt, please verify independently.

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Cut-off times at retail outlets

The Lotto 6aus49 draws of the German Lotto and Totoblock take place on Wednesday at 18:25 and on Saturday at 19:25. Typically, this results in retail cut‑off times on Wednesdays around 17:30–18:00 and on Saturdays around 18:30–19:00. These times vary between federal states because the state lottery administrations set the cut‑off times largely independently. For the online sales point of Lotto Saarland, the following cut‑off times apply — for Wednesday Lotto: 18:00 and for Saturday Lotto: 19:00.

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Prize collection and payout in Saarland

Until recently, all lottery players in Saarland had to assert their prize claims within 13 weeks of the draw date (or from the date of last participation for multi‑week tickets) by presenting a valid receipt; otherwise, the prize expired. Changes in legislation led to the most recent change in the terms on 22.03.2016, effective for draws from Saturday, 02.07.2016. Now §18 states: “Statutory limitation rules apply to the assertion and limitation of claims.” As a rule, players now have 3 years (possibly until the end of the respective calendar year) to assert their claims — a significant improvement over the previous 13‑week period. In Saarland retail outlets, only prizes up to €500 are paid out. For higher amounts (practical tip — even for a few hundred euros, a small neighborhood shop may not have enough cash on hand; it’s advisable to ask in advance), a written prize claim must be submitted (available at every outlet). Alternatively, you can visit the Saartoto headquarters in Saarbrücken:

Payout can also be made by standard bank transfer. It’s therefore more convenient to submit your ticket online. Your receipt cannot be lost and the prize is automatically transferred to your bank account. In addition, as seen in the comparison tables, you can benefit from lower processing fees!

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Lotto Saarland customer card

The LOTTO customer card from Lotto Saarland is called the Lotto customer card. This card is free of charge and available at any LOTTO shop in Saarland. It is particularly useful for ODDSET, TOTO and KENO, where personal identification has been required since 2008 for reasons of problem‑gambling prevention and youth protection. The card serves player identification and additionally offers services such as saving up to 10 personal tickets and automatic bank transfer for higher wins, as well as transferring smaller wins up to €500 if you have not collected them within five weeks at a LOTTO shop in Saarland.

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State of Saarland – lottery history

Saarbrücken is the capital of the State of Saarland in southwestern Germany. With around 181,000 inhabitants (as of 2017, source: Federal Statistical Office, destatis.de), the city is not particularly large and is the capital of Germany’s second‑smallest state by population (after Bremen). The area of the state is about 2,571.12 km².

The first lotto in Germany was drawn on 11 January 1953 in Berlin as the numbers lottery 5 out of 90. Lotto Saarland joined the German LOTTO Block later; the Block was established in June 1955 by Bavaria, Berlin, Hamburg, North Rhine‑Westphalia and Schleswig‑Holstein. Since the Lotto Block agreement, each state can conduct the numbers lottery independently. The winning numbers were drawn every Saturday and hosted in rotation by the LOTTO Block partners, five weeks each. Hamburg started on 9 October 1955: at 16:00 the lotto balls were drawn for the first time in a large drum made of wood and glass. The orphan girl Elvira became the very first “lotto fairy” — and the first number drawn was “13”! Back then, evaluating tickets was hard work: in 1955 hundreds of evaluators worked through the night under strict supervision, checking all tickets with a stencil. Today, modern data centers complete this task within minutes. As a rule of thumb for publishing prize payouts: on the next working day — usually Monday for Saturday Lotto and Thursday for Wednesday Lotto — typically between 9:00 and 12:00 (the higher the jackpot, the later the payouts are published).

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