Lotto 6aus49 in Baden-Württemberg

Baden-Württemberg sits in an interesting lottery position. At €39 per capita, the state ranks 13th out of 16, level with Hamburg, Bavaria and Berlin. As a share of disposable income, that is only 0.13 percent, one of the lowest figures among all federal states. In absolute terms, though, Baden-Württemberg remains Germany's third or fourth strongest lottery state, with €443 million in play volume.

The low relative rate is explained by the economic picture. Baden-Württemberg has, at 12.5 percent, the highest savings rate of all German federal states. If you put aside more than twelve cents of every euro earned, you spend proportionally less on Lotto. That observation is consistent: states with high savings rates (Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Hesse) sit in the lower third of the Lotto share ranking.

What makes Baden-Württemberg special in lottery terms is the history of public-benefit funding. Germany's oldest organised Lotto funding fund is based here. On 18 August 1948, the government of Württemberg-Baden passed Act No. 527 creating the Wettmittelfonds, under which part of sports-betting stakes was to be used to "promote physical exercise". The background was the sports facilities destroyed by the war, which had to be rebuilt. That makes the Wettmittelfonds Germany's oldest continuous lottery funding structure, older than 6aus49 itself, which was introduced in Baden-Württemberg only ten years later, in 1958.

Since 1948, around €17 billion has flowed from this Wettmittelfonds to the public. Today, about 13 cents of every euro staked in Baden-Württemberg goes into the fund. For 2026, that corresponds to about €160.4 million for sport, culture, heritage protection, social projects, nature conservation, rescue services and disaster protection. The state parliament decides every two years on the amount and distribution. The concrete allocation is handled by the relevant ministries.

One very concrete docking point for this funding is the strong sports-club landscape. One in three people in Baden-Württemberg is active in a sports club, and the state has more than 11,000 sports clubs in total. Almost half of the Wettmittelfonds money benefits sport. If you hand in a ticket in Stuttgart, Karlsruhe or Freiburg, you are very likely also funding new lighting for a sports field in the next town or the renovation of an old Black Forest clubhouse.

An honest owl observation on the side: when the 1958 Lotto law was debated in the state parliament, the discussion was at times heated. There were moral concerns in politics and the churches. Only after a longer debate did the finance ministry commission the then Staatliche Sport-Toto GmbH to run the number lottery. Other federal states had already been in since 1955. This early caution fits Baden-Württemberg's savings culture and its low Lotto rate to this day. People who think twice about playing Lotto also tend to play less.