31-657: The Pennsylvania Lottery is a lottery operated by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania . It was created by the Pennsylvania General Assembly on August 26, 1971; two months later, Henry Kaplan was appointed as its first executive director. The Pennsylvania Lottery sold its first tickets on March 7, 1972, and drew its first numbers on March 15, 1972. By Pennsylvania law, at least 40 percent of Lottery proceeds are required to be paid as prizes, with another 27 percent towards funding programs. Currently,
62-518: A gold-colored "Mega Ball" from a pool of 25 numbers. Plays remain $ 2 each, or $ 3 if the Megaplier is activated. Mega Millions is drawn Tuesday and Friday nights. The first Mega Millions drawing that included Pennsylvania (held on February 2, 2010) produced three winners of $ 250,000; two were in areas new to the game: one each in Connecticut and Pennsylvania. Neither ticket holder had activated
93-414: A red-colored "Powerball" from a pool of 26 numbers. Plays are $ 2 each, or $ 3 if Power Play is activated. Powerball is drawn Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday nights. The Millionaire Raffle is normally offered annually. Tickets cost $ 20; each ticket is assigned a unique eight-digit number starting from 00000001 (quantities being limited). Numbers are assigned in the order that the tickets are purchased; thus,
124-422: A revenue decrease exceeding $ 75 million for the fiscal year 2016–2017, Pennsylvania passed a gaming expansion bill that authorized the sale of online lottery products. Governor Tom Wolf 's budget plan for 2018 said that he and the state would use new revenues to "re-establish a $ 75 million reserve fund". Pick 2 is a two-digit (0–9) game which debuted on January 27, 2015. (Concurrent with the introduction of Pick 2,
155-511: Is a four-digit game, drawn twice a day (at 1:10 p.m. ET, with the numbers posted on the Lottery's website after 1:35 p.m. ET, and on the live televised drawing at 6:59 p.m. ET), seven days a week. Single tickets can be purchased for the same amounts as in Pick 3, up to seven days in advance. Pick 4 can be played in two basic ways: Pick 5's first drawing was on August 26, 2008, under
186-435: Is a three-digit (0–9) game, drawn twice a day (at 1:10 p.m. ET, with the numbers posted on the Lottery's website after 1:35 p.m. ET, and on a live televised drawing at 6:59 p.m. ET), seven days a week. Single tickets can be purchased in increments of 50¢, up to $ 5.00. Tickets can be purchased up to seven days in advance. Pick 3 can be played in five basic ways: Pick 4 debuted on November 22, 1980, as Big 4 . It
217-516: Is drawn during the live televised nighttime drawings at 6:59 p.m. ET, seven days a week. Games cost $ 2 each(previously $ 1); tickets can be purchased up to seven days in advance. The minimum jackpot is $ 150,000 (originally $ 100,000, then $ 125,000), increasing until there is a 5-of-5 winner. Cash 5 jackpots also are always paid in lump sum. This game began on April 23, 1992, as a weekly game. It gradually expanded with its popularity. Cash 5 has four available prize amounts: Starting on March 23, 2021,
248-418: The Megaplier , which would have won $ 1,000,000, as the Megaplier was 4. Eventually, a second-prize Mega Millions ticket with Megaplier activated was guaranteed to win $ 1,000,000, regardless of the multiplier drawn. Pennsylvania joined Powerball in 2002; it was MUSL's most-populous member until Florida joined in 2009. The current Powerball game requires players to choose 5 of 69 "white ball" numbers, and
279-567: The Pick 2 , Pick 3 , Pick 4 , and Pick 5 games introduced on September 13, 2016. Activating the Wild Ball doubles the cost of the play. Before the Pick games are drawn, one digit from 0 through 9 is drawn and designated as the Wild Ball number. The Wild Ball number may then be used by the player to replace any one digit in any of the Pick games. For instance, if the player selects 123 in
310-482: The 100,000th ticket purchased for a given raffle will have the number 00100000. At the drawings, the four $ 1,000,000-winning ticket numbers, as well as the second prize winners, are drawn by random number generator. As of January 2024, there have been 33 Millionaire Raffle drawings. The Pennsylvania Lottery has offered several games which would later be discontinued due to low sales and/or relative obsolescence. These games include (in order of introduction): Lotto
341-539: The Daily Number, Big 4, and Quinto were renamed to Pick 3, Pick 4, and Pick 5, respectively.) Pick 2 is drawn twice daily (at 1:10 p.m. ET , with the numbers posted on the Lottery's website after 1:35 p.m. ET, and on a live televised drawing at 6:59 p.m. ET), seven days a week. The minimum play is $ 1, and tickets can be purchased up to seven days in advance. Pick 2 can be played in four basic ways: Pick 3 debuted on March 1, 1977, as The Daily Number . It
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#1732782676378372-682: The Pennsylvania Lottery began offering Derby Cash, a virtual horse racing game. The virtual races run every 5 minutes and can be bought at all lottery retailers and watched at over 2,000 locations. Pennsylvania joined Cash4Life on April 7, 2015; it began in New Jersey and New York the previous year. (The game also is available in Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Maryland, Missouri, Tennessee, and Virginia.) Players choose 5 of 60 numbers in one field, and 1 of 4 green "Cash Ball" numbers in
403-431: The Pennsylvania Lottery exceeds these requirements, as 60.9 percent is paid as prizes, 29.9 percent to programs, 6.7 percent is paid as retailer and vendor commissions and 2.5 percent is consumed as operating expenses. For the 2009–2010 fiscal year, approximately $ 3.065 billion in gross revenue was acquired through proceeds and interest. Approximately $ 1.87 billion was paid as prizes, $ 915.7 million to programs, $ 207 million
434-400: The Pick 3 game, and the number actually drawn is 124, but the Wild Ball is a 3, the player may replace the 4 with a 3 to create a winning combination. Because the Wild Ball creates additional ways to win, a win using the Wild Ball generally pays a lesser amount than a win using the base play (with the exceptions of the front and back digit plays in Pick 2 ), however, a player can win both from
465-412: The Wild Ball and from the base play if the Wild Ball matches one of the digits naturally. Payouts using the Wild Ball are as follows: Treasure Hunt's first drawing was on May 8, 2007. It involves selecting five numbers from 1 through 30. It is drawn daily at 1:10 p.m. ET, and the results are released at 1:35 p.m. ET on the Lottery's website. It is the Lottery's only game held exclusively during
496-651: The addition of two prize categories and a "permanent" prize for matching 5 of the first 6 numbers drawn along with the "alternate" number (now called the "Wild Card Number"). Lottery Too Many Requests If you report this error to the Wikimedia System Administrators, please include the details below. Request from 172.68.168.150 via cp1114 cp1114, Varnish XID 930977168 Upstream caches: cp1114 int Error: 429, Too Many Requests at Thu, 28 Nov 2024 08:31:16 GMT Random number generator Too Many Requests If you report this error to
527-450: The first six numbers drawn. Players won by matching at least four of the first six numbers drawn. Players also would win by matching 5 of the first 6, plus a seventh, "alternate", number if no game matched the first six numbers . The prize structure with one or more jackpot winners was as follows: The prize structure with no jackpot winner was as follows: In February 1988, the game became Wild Card Lotto (WCL). The game's changes included
558-400: The former game Super 6 (see below), the automatic quick-picks are necessary. This is because, in addition to winning in the normal fashion (matching at least three numbers in one game, "base play"), a player also can win by matching enough numbers on all 3 lines ("combined play"). In "combined play", the 18 numbers across the three lines often repeat. Only when there are enough "repeats" across
589-574: The lottery to offer Keno . Keno games went live on May 1, 2018, at hundreds of locations throughout the state. In May 2018, the Pennsylvania Lottery launched internet lottery games. The suite of products, known as the Pennsylvania iLottery, includes a variety of scratch-off games that reveal lottery ticket results online. In August 2018, seven Pennsylvania casinos filed a lawsuit to shut the iLottery program down, citing similarities to slot machines which casinos have exclusive rights to offering in
620-404: The name Quinto. It is a five-digit game, drawn twice a day (at 1:10 p.m. ET, with the numbers posted on the Lottery's website after 1:35 p.m. ET, and on the live televised drawing at 6:59 p.m. ET), seven days a week. The minimum play in Pick 5 is $ 1. Players can purchase tickets up to seven days in advance. Odds and payouts for Pick 5 are as follows: The Wild Ball is an add-on to
651-461: The non-televised midday drawings, as well as its only game always selected via a computer instead of printed balls. The minimum jackpot is $ 10,000, although sales often allow the actual prize level to be higher. Prizes are also won by matching four, three, or two of the winning numbers. Treasure Hunt has a payout percentage of 58%. Overall odds of winning are 1 in 5.45. Cash 5 consists of picking five numbers from 1 through 43 (originally 1-39). It
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#1732782676378682-401: The previous version. This extra money goes into the jackpot, as the lower tier prize amounts did not change. On August 28, 2017, Match 6 increased the frequency of drawings to seven nights per week. This made Pennsylvania one of the few lotteries to have all of its draw games held daily. Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf signed a gaming expansion bill on October 30, 2017, making it possible for
713-423: The price per play increased to $ 2, and all second through fourth-level prizes became fixed amounts ($ 200, $ 10, and $ 2, respectively). Concurrent with this change, a “Quick Cash” feature was added, in which a second ticket, similar to a Fast Play ticket (see below) would be printed with one play of Quick Cash given for each play of Cash 5 purchased. Matching any of five “winning numbers” to any of five “your numbers” in
744-462: The same play, wins the prize of either $ 2 or $ 6. Match 6 consists of picking 6 numbers, from 1 through 49. It is drawn during the live televised Lottery drawings at 6:59 p.m. ET. Nightly Players get three sets of numbers for each $ 2 game played (see below); betters can play in increments up to 26 drawings. The jackpot begins at $ 500,000; it always is paid in a lump sum. Players automatically receive two free "quick picks" for each $ 2 played; unlike
775-403: The second field. Cash4Life drawings are held live on Monday to Sunday evenings at 9pm Eastern Time on Livestream . The top prize (win or share) $ 1,000-per-day-for-life, or the cash option. Second prize is $ 1,000-per-week-for-life or the cash option. Mega Millions was originally known as The Big Game , which began in 1996. The current name was adopted in 2002. On October 13, 2009, an agreement
806-457: The state. The lottery has continued to offer these games, as this style of scratch-off tickets are considered sufficiently different from online casino slot machines in other jurisdictions with similar products. The Pennsylvania Lottery has been offering Xpress Sports' Racing and Football since the summer of 2018. Similar to keno, the virtual sports games are displayed on monitors at select locations and run every few minutes. On November 19, 2019,
837-468: The three lines is it possible to win the highest possible prize in the "all three lines category" (see list of prize amounts). Match 6 has 11 available prize amounts: The overall probability of winning on a $ 2 play is approximately 1 in 5.9. Match 6 originally ran from January 28, 2004, to March 10, 2009. The final jackpot of this run was $ 900,000, and was won by one set of six numbers. The jackpot would have rolled down if there had been no winner. Match 6
868-480: Was paid as retailer and vendor commissions, and $ 76.6 million was paid to advertising and operations. The gross revenue for fiscal year 2009–2010 represented an increase of approximately 59 percent in sales over fiscal year 2001–02. The Pennsylvania Lottery is the only US lottery that targets all of its proceeds to programs for its elderly residents. Since the beginning of the Lottery in 1972, more than $ 20.1 billion has been contributed to programs. In 2017, following
899-599: Was reached between the Mega Millions and Powerball groups. On January 31, 2010, Pennsylvania was among the lotteries that added the "other" game, in this case Mega Millions, on the cross-sell expansion date. Forty-six lotteries, including those of the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands, currently offer both games. The current Mega Millions game requires players to choose 5 of 70 "white ball" numbers, and
930-444: Was replaced by the revival of Super 7, which in turn was retired on April 27, 2010, due to poor sales. On June 1, 2010, however, Match 6 returned, this time replacing Mix & Match. Match 6's gameplay did not change from the previous version, although the drawing days are different from before. It was formerly drawn on Mondays and Thursdays, and also formerly Tuesdays and Fridays. It also has an average payout of 57.95%, up from 53% in
961-426: Was the third game and the first jackpot game offered by the Pennsylvania Lottery, and replaced the traditional "passive draw" games. The first version ran from April 1982 until February 1988. The game was played by selecting 6 numbers from a field of 40. Players got two games for $ 1, having to play an even number of games. Players won the jackpot, which was paid in 21 annual installments (with no cash option), by matching