Discontinued Totalizator Sportowy games — Maly Lotek, Express Lotek, Karo

Toto-Lotek was never discontinued — in 1975 its name changed to Duzy Lotek, and in 2009 to Lotto. The games that were genuinely discontinued by Totalizator Sportowy are Maly Lotek, Express Lotek, Karo, and the Los Milionos lottery, which ran from 2008 to 2012. Today's number-game lineup includes six games: Lotto with the Lotto Plus add-on, Mini Lotto, Multi Multi, Kaskada, Eurojackpot, and Super Szansa.

Which Totalizator Sportowy games were discontinued

The distinction between discontinuing a game and simply renaming it can be confusing, since both look identical from an outlet's perspective: one day the ticket just has a different name. The difference matters greatly, though, for anyone tracking statistics — a renamed game has a continuous draw history, while a discontinued game ends its history at the final draw.

Game	What happened to it
Toto-Lotek	renamed in 1975 to Duzy Lotek, in 2009 to Lotto — the game continues
Duzy Lotek	renamed in 2009 to Lotto — the game continues
Maly Lotek	withdrawn from the lineup
Express Lotek	discontinued, its format taken over by Multi Multi and Kaskada
Karo	discontinued after a short period of operation
Los Milionos	a time-limited lottery, 2008–2012

Yearly dates are cited from the encyclopedic entries in the sources section. The exact start and end dates of individual games sometimes vary between sources.

The first draw and the company's beginnings

Totalizator Sportowy was founded in 1956 as a state-owned enterprise whose profits were meant to fund the construction of sports facilities. That mechanism has survived to this day — the company still contributes to sport, culture, and national heritage. Its first form of game was a football pool, in which players predicted match results; hence the name "totalizator".

The number game appeared a year later. The first Toto-Lotek draw took place on 27 January 1957, and the history of numbers in Poland is counted from that date. Early draws were held in Sopot, and results were announced on the radio — waiting for the outcome could take hours, sometimes until the next day.

Timeline of number games

• 1956 — Totalizator Sportowy is founded as a state-owned enterprise.
• 1957 — the first Toto-Lotek draw, on 27 January.
• 1975 — Toto-Lotek is renamed Duzy Lotek.
• 70s and 80s — Maly Lotek operates, eventually withdrawn from the lineup.
• 90s — Express Lotek launches, a game with a fast draw cycle, later discontinued.
• 2008 — the Los Milionos lottery launches, drawing ticket numbers.
• 2009 — Duzy Lotek is renamed Lotto.
• 2012 — Los Milionos ends operations after four years.
• 2017 — Poland joins Eurojackpot.

Why Toto-Lotek is still the same Lotto

This is the most common misunderstanding in conversations about the history of number games. Toto-Lotek was not discontinued — it was renamed. The formula of six numbers out of forty-nine survived both name changes intact, and the draw numbering has run uninterrupted since January 1957.

This has a practical consequence for anyone counting frequencies. The draw database covers all three periods, because it's the same game — nearly seventy years of continuous records. It's worth remembering, though, that in the first decades draws were held less often than today, so the number of events is spread very unevenly over time. Anyone comparing how many times a given number has come up should look at Lotto statistics together with the number of draws in each period, not just the raw hit count.

The draw schedule has also changed. Different timetables applied for years compared with today's — another reason why comparing "the number of draws per year" across eras calls for caution.

Maly Lotek and Express Lotek — why they disappeared

Maly Lotek was a game with a shorter number range and a higher hit rate than Duzy Lotek. It was easier to win, but the prize pool was more modest — the more people who won, the less each player received. This arithmetic proved fatal for its popularity: players chose the game with the lower odds and the higher stake.

Express Lotek, which appeared in the nineties, met a different need — more frequent draws and a faster result. That idea didn't vanish from the market; it was taken over by later games, above all Multi Multi with two draws a day, plus Kaskada. Express Lotek was discontinued, but its format survived under other names — you can see this in today's Multi Multi results, where a draw is held twice a day.

Totalizator's archives also feature short-lived games such as Karo. They left little statistical trace, since they ran for a short time with a small player base — historical analyses usually skip them.

Los Milionos — a lottery without picking numbers

Los Milionos worked differently from every other game. There was no picking of numbers. A ticket bought within the designated period entered automatically, and the draw covered the ticket's identification number, not a set of digits chosen by the player.

From the standpoint of number statistics, Los Milionos is therefore of no use — it provides no data on number frequency, because there were simply no numbers involved. The lottery ran from 2008 to 2012 and was then wound down: from the outset it was conceived as a time-limited campaign, not a permanent fixture of the lineup.

Three reasons a game gets dropped from the lineup

1. Sales too low. A game that doesn't collect enough tickets can't sustain a prize pool large enough to attract further players. A spiral sets in: a smaller pool, less interest, an even smaller pool.
2. Cannibalization. When two games in the same lineup meet the same need, the weaker one loses out. That's what happened to Maly Lotek alongside Duzy Lotek.
3. Changing technology and regulations. A game designed around a paper ticket and a once-a-week draw doesn't easily fit into a world where results are expected instantly and sales also happen online.

What has changed for players since the days of Toto-Lotek

The Lotto formula itself has stayed the same since 1957, but the conditions around it have changed many times. Two recent changes are worth knowing about, since they concern money, not history.

Element	Current status
Tax on winnings	15% from 1 January 2026
Tax-free amount	2280 PLN — unchanged
Bet pricing	changed on 18 August 2026

The tax-free amount works so that a win up to 2280 PLN goes to the player in full, while for a higher amount the tax is deducted from the whole sum, not just the excess. What's left after a given amount is calculated by the winnings tax calculator. Large winnings are collected at designated Totalizator branches, of which there are seventeen across Poland — their addresses and opening hours are listed on the where to collect your winnings page.

What game history tells us about today's statistics

It's worth separating two things. Historical data is a fact and can be counted: how many times each number has come up, when it last appeared, what the longest gap has been. That's descriptive information, and that's how we treat it in this service — including in the heat maps, which show the distribution of hits over the years.

It's another matter entirely to conclude that this data can yield an edge. A Lotto draw is an independent event — the balls don't remember previous results, and every set of six numbers has exactly the same probability as any other. Nearly seventy years of history doesn't change that by a fraction. Statistics show what has happened; they don't say what will happen.

What has changed is something else. There are more games today, they have different pools and different draw times, and results are published immediately after the draw. That difference doesn't affect the odds, but it changes the way people play — in the past you waited for the outcome until a radio announcement, today it's on your phone minutes after the draw.