The New York Lottery launched in 1967 and is one of the oldest lotteries in the United States. It’s also the largest lottery in the country. The state of New York offers ten different draw games, video lottery terminals, and a wide variety of scratch-off games.

1. Powerball Drawing Time Tonight Ny
2. Florida Lottery
3. New Jersey Lottery

NY Lottery games include:

• Cash 4 Life
• Mega Millions
• Money Dots
• New York Lotto
• Numbers
• Pick 10
• Powerball
• Quick Draw
• Take 5
• Video Lottery Terminals (VLTs)
• Win 4

The New York Lotto began in 1967 and whlist it is one of the oldest government run lottery games in the United States, it is still hugely popular and has a dedicated following of fans. Every Wednesday and Saturday night, six winning numbers and a bonus number are randomly selected from 59 numbered balls from a special draw machine. New York lottery apps allow players to view their bonuses and bonus offers online. They also allow users to track all of the games that a player has played, so that he can see which games offer the best bonuses. With these apps, players no longer have to go to the New York lottery headquarters in New York City.

The New York Lottery’s draw games are games where you choose a set of numbers with the goal of matching the random drawing of numbers. The more numbers you choose that match the numbers drawn, the bigger your prize amount.

Some of the draw games are multi-state games – these include Cash 4 Life, Mega Millions, and Powerball.

Besides the draw games, the New York Lottery offers a variety of scratch-off tickets. These are instant-win games sold on cardstock. You scratch the gray ink off the card to find out what numbers are printed on the card. The scratch-off games change throughout the year.

You can also find video lottery terminals (VLTs) in any of the state’s nine racetracks. These games look and feel like slot machine games.

The New York State Gaming Commission in Schenectady administers the lottery.

The New York Lottery is the largest in the country. In the fiscal year of 2018/2019, the New York Lottery contributed $3.47 billion to education in the state. Lottery sales exceed $9 billion in the state, and state law requires that all revenues aside from operating expenses fund public education.

This page aims to provide a detailed overview of how to play New York Lottery games. This includes all the draw games available as well as a broad overview of scratch-off ticket games. The page also contains details about the return to player percentages for the various games, where to buy tickets and claim prizes, and historical notes.

How to Buy New York Lottery Tickets Online

The Jackpocket lottery app sells NY Lottery games online with the permission of state regulators. In January 2021, the NY Lottery approved Jackpocket to sell tickets and subscriptions to certain draw games.

Players 18 or older can download the Jackpocket app for iOS and Android devices to buy NY Lottery tickets online from anywhere within state lines.

The app supports the following games:

• Powerball
• Mega Millions
• Cash 4 Life
• NY Lotto
• Pick 10
• Take 5
• Numbers
• Win 4

Jackpocket works by taking your order through the app and then purchasing real tickets on your behalf from an authorized retailer.

After you submit your order, Jackpocket completes the purchase, scans a copy of your ticket (front and back) for your verification, and sends a confirmation e-mail with each ticket’s serial number.

Jackpocket stores your paper tickets in a fireproof safe and will alert you through the app for any wins. If you win $600 or less, Jackpocket will credit the funds directly to your account. From there, you can withdraw your winnings or use them to purchase additional tickets.

If you win $600 or more, you can either pick up the ticket in-person from Jackpocket or arrange a secure delivery to claim your prize directly from the NY Lottery as you would with any other winning ticket.

Read more: Jackpocket Review

Visit Jackpocket today to download the official iOS/Android app:

Return to Player for New York Lottery Players

When gambling experts write about gambling games with an “X for Y” payout, they use a metric called “return to player” to describe the game’s odds. Games with these kinds of payouts include slot machines, video poker games, and, of course, lottery games.

The return to player percentage is a way of measuring the long-term statistical payback amount for a game. You can consider it a way to measure the actual value of a ticket.

And, since the lottery is meant to be profitable, a $1 ticket is, on average, worth less than $1.

The difference is determined by the odds of winning a prize and the amount of that prize. When you multiply the prize amount by the probability of winning that prize, you get the return for that prize.

Add up the returns for all the prizes, and you have the overall return for the game, which is expressed as a percentage of your money that you’ll get back, on average, in the long run, playing the game.

For example, suppose you’re playing a game with a 50% return to player– which isn’t unusual for a lottery game. In that case, you’ll eventually average 50 cents in winnings for every dollar you play in the lottery.

One thing to keep in mind is that this is a long-term, mathematical expectation. In the short run, your results are random and won’t resemble the expected return to player.

Here’s an example:

You buy a New York Lotto ticket for $1, and you don’t win anything. Your actual return for that ticket is 0%.

Here’s another example:

Powerball Drawing Time Tonight Ny

You buy another New York Lotto ticket for $1, and you win $2. Your return for that ticket is 200%.

Combine the return for both tickets, and your total return is 100%.

But you can be confident that the expected return is much lower than that. You just got lucky on the 2^nd drawing.

This page provides rough estimates for the return to player percentages for the New York Lottery, but keep in mind that the prize amounts fluctuate for most of these games based on the number of tickets sold each week.

Also, this page uses the expressions “return to player” and “payback percentage” interchangeably. There’s no real difference between the two terms.

Playing in The New York Lottery (Games and Schedules)

Below you’ll find detailed how-to-play information for New York’s draw games. You’ll also find an overview of the scratch-off games available in New York. The guides include the cost for the game tickets, the odds of winning, the usual prize amounts, and – where possible — an estimate of the return to player percentage for each game.

Cash 4 Life

Cash 4 Life is one of the multi-state games that New York participates in. As of this writing, New York is one of nine states participating in the game. In fact, New York – along with New Jersey – was one of the original couple of states participating in Cash4Life.

Cash 4 Life tickets are $2 each, and for that $2, you get to choose five numbers from between 1 and 60. You also select a sixth number from between 1 and 4.

The first five numbers correspond to the white balls in the game, and the fourth number represents the green ball – aka “The Cash Ball.”

After the drawing, if you’ve matched all five balls along with the Cash Ball, you win $1000 a day for the rest of your life. Alternatively, you can take a prize of $7 million.

Second prize is $1000 a week for the rest of your life or $1 million in cash. You must choose which you prefer when you buy the ticket.

Cash4Life drawings happen every night at Studio B in New Jersey at Lottery Headquarters. Drawings happen at 9pm.

The paytable for Cash4Life looks like this:

• Match 5 numbers plus the Cash Ball – $1000 a day for life – the odds of winning are 1 in 21,846.048.
• Match 5 numbers but miss the Cash Ball – $1000 a week for life – the odds of winning are 1 in 7,282,016.
• Match 4 numbers plus the Cash Ball — $2500 – the odds of winning are 1 in 79,440.
• Match 4 numbers but miss the Cash Ball — $500 – the odds of winning are 1 in 26,480.
• Match 3 numbers plus the Cash Ball – $100 – the odds of winning are 1 in 1471.
• Match 3 numbers but miss the Cash Ball — $25 – the odds of winning are 1 in 490.
• Match 2 numbers plus the Cash Ball — $10 – the odds of winning are 1 in 83.
• Match 2 numbers but miss the Cash Ball — $4 – the odds of winning are 1 in 28.
• Match 1 number plus the Cash Ball — $2 — the odds of winning are 1 in 13.

The overall odds of winning a prize are 1 in 7.76.

Using the cash option for the game, the expected return to player is easy to calculate.

It’s 52.21%.

If you’ve read about the lottery games in other states, Cash4Life might sound familiar. That’s because a similar game, Lucky for Life, is available in 25 states, too.

But Lucky for Life and Cash4Life are different games with slightly different rules.

Mega Millions and Powerball

Mega Millions and Powerball are the two largest multi-jurisdictional lottery games in the country. You can find complete details for each game by following the links, but you’ll also find a broad overview of each game below.

To play Mega Millions, you buy a ticket for $2 and choose five numbers from 1 to 70. You also select a sixth number from between 1 and 25. The main five numbers correspond to the white balls, and the sixth number corresponds to the gold-colored Mega Ball.

You can also opt to play with Megaplier activated for an additional $1 per ticket. The Megaplier is a multiplier between 2 and 5 that’s applied to any jackpot you win – except the top prize.

The starting jackpot for Mega Millions used to be $40 million, but it was reduced to $20 million during the pandemic. The size of the jackpot increases after each drawing until someone wins. The return to player for the game is less than 20%, but that return rises along with the top jackpot size.

You play Powerball in much the same way as you do Mega Millions, but instead of choosing five numbers between 1 and 70, you choose five numbers between 1 and 69. The sixth number is the Powerball, and it’s a number between 1 and 26.

Instead of a Megaplier option, the Powerball offers a Power Play option for $1. This results in a multiplier of between 2 and 10 to any jackpot besides the top prize.

The top prize for Powerball also starts at $20 million, although this should go back to $40 million after the pandemic. Like Mega Millions, Powerball offers a return to player percentage of less than 20%.

Florida Lottery

You can find complete details, including pay tables for both games, on their individual pages on this site.

Money Dots

The New York Lottery launched Money Dots in December 2020. Unlike most lottery games, where you can choose your own numbers or use the quick pick option, Money Dots is only available with a quick pick.

In a game of Money Dots, you receive eight randomly assigned numbers between 1 and 80. Also, drawings for Money Dots happen every four minutes instead of daily or once or twice per week.

Money Dots uses the same batch of 80 numbers as the Quick Draw game, but there’s a twist. The Money Dots drawings are held immediately after each of the Quick Draw games.

You’ll find full details about Quick Draw below but suffice it to say that Quick Draw is basically a state-run keno game with a field of 80 numbers, 20 of which are drawn during each drawing.

Money Dots eliminates the 20 numbers drawn for Quick Draw and generates results from the remaining 60 numbers. Each of those 60 numbers gets a color assigned to it – yellow, purple, green, or red.

If one of the Money Dots on your ticket matches one of the Money Dots on your ticket, you get the corresponding prize amount:

• Yellow is worth $5. (Odds are 1 in 17.39.)
• Purple is worth $10. (Odds are 1 in 88.89.)
• Green is worth $20. (Odds are 1 in 266.67.)
• Red is worth $50. (Odds are 1 in 400.)

The return to player for Money Dots is 60%, which is relatively high for a lottery game. On the other hand, being able to play Money Dots 15 times per hour increases the game’s profitability for the New York Lottery because you can put so much money into action on it.

New York Lotto

The New York Lotto is one of the most straightforward and most traditional lottery games in the state. You buy a ticket for $1, and you choose six numbers from between 1 and 59. Match all six numbers and win the jackpot. Match fewer numbers and still win a prize.

The game also features a seventh bonus ball. To win the second prize, you match five numbers plus the bonus ball.

The New York Lotto drawings are held on Wednesday and Saturday night at 8:15pm.

The New York Lotto is a parimutuel game with varying payouts based on ticket sales the number of winners at each prize level. The more winners there are at any level, the smaller each winner’s final payout.

The paytable is a little different for this game:

• Match 6 numbers to win the jackpot. The jackpot is generally above $2 million. The odds of winning are 1 in 45,057,474.
• Match 5 numbers and the bonus ball to win 2^nd prize. This prize is usually between $25,000 and $30,000. The odds of winning are 1 in 7,509,579.
• Match 5 numbers – This prize is usually between $2500 and $3000. The odds of winning are 1 in 144,415.
• Match 4 numbers and win about $30. The odds of winning are 1 in 2180.
• Match 3 numbers and win $1. The odds of winning are 1 in 96.

One of the unusual things about the New York Lotto is that the bonus ball is ONLY used to determine the second prize winner.

The NY Lottery sets aside 40% of sales as prizes. The percentages listed below relate to the portion of that amount.

The return to player for this game is abysmal even when compared to other lottery games. Your odds of winning any kind of prize are only 1 in about 92, and the return to player is about 10%. That number improves when more tickets are sold, but the New York Lotto isn’t especially popular and doesn’t draw much in ticket sales.

Numbers

Numbers is the name the New York Lottery gives to its version of a Pick 3 game, a classic draw game available in most states with lotteries. These games are different from other games in multiple ways.

For one thing, you have fewer numbers to pick – just three.

And the numbers that you’re choosing from have a smaller range. Each of the three numbers in a Numbers game is a digit between 0 and 9.

Also, all 10 of those digits are available for each of those three. Once a number’s been drawn in a standard draw game, it can’t come up again for the second or third number.

You have multiple ways you can play a game like Numbers, and you can play for either 50 cents a ticket or a dollar a ticket.

Since you only have 1000 possible combinations, it’s easy to calculate the odds. If you bet on a straight three-digit combination, you win 500 for 1 on your ticket. On a 50-cent ticket, that’s $250, and on a $1 ticket, that’s $500.

Here’s an example:

You buy a straight ticket with the numbers 123. You win if the numbers are drawn in that order: 1, 2, and 3.

If the game draws a 231 or a 321, you don’t win anything.

But a straight ticket isn’t the only way to play. You can also buy a ticket called a box ticket. This kind of ticket wins regardless of the order in which the numbers are drawn, but the payout is correspondingly lower.

A 123 box ticket wins on any combination that includes a 1, 2, and 3:

• 123
• 132
• 213
• 231
• 312
• 321

You’re six times more likely to win with this kind of bet, and the payout is only 80 for 1. A 50-cent ticket pays off at $40, and a $1 ticket pays off at $80.

It gets more complicated when you start looking at the difference between 3-way boxes and 6-way boxes. When you bet on a box where you have 2 digits that are the same, you have fewer possible winning combinations, which results in a lower payout.

You can also play with various combinations.

Numbers drawings are held twice daily, and the payback percentage is around 50% regardless of which kind of ticket you buy.

Pick 10

Pick 10 is a keno game where you choose 10 numbers from between 1 and 80. The New York Lottery draws 20 numbers during the drawing, and the more of your numbers that match those 20, the bigger your prize is.

It costs $1 per ticket to play Pick 10, and you can choose your own numbers or use a quick pick. Either option is fine. You have no mathematical advantage using one over the other.

Here’s the paytable:

• Match 10 numbers and win $500,000. The odds are 1 in 8,911,711.
• Match 9 numbers and win $6000. The odds are 1 in 163,381.
• Match 8 numbers and win $300. The odds are 1 in 7384.
• Match 7 numbers and win $40. The odds are 1 in 621.
• Match 6 numbers and win $10. The odds are 1 in 87.

New Jersey Lottery

A cursory glance at the odds versus the payouts for this game immediately clarifies that the expected return for this game is low.

How low is it?

31.28%.

The New York Lottery could raise the top prize to $1 million and still have a game with an expected return of 36.89%.

The Pick 10 drawing is held every day at 8:30pm.

Quick Draw

Quick Draw is another keno-style game from the New York Lottery, and it’s connected with Money Dots. They’re two different games with different tickets and payouts, but they use the same sets of results to determine winners.

Instead of choosing ten numbers (like you do in Pick 10), you decide how many numbers between 1 and 80 you choose. You can choose between one and ten spots to play.

You also get to decide how much you want to wager on Quick Draw. You can play for $1, $2, $3, $4, $5, or $10 per ticket.

You can also choose to double the size of your wager with the “Quick Draw Extra” option. This provides you with a randomly-sized multiplier to increase your win’s size by – the multiplier is a number between 1 and 10.

There’s a separate paytable depending on how many spots you choose, too.

If you choose one spot, the paytable is simple:

Your odds of winning are 1 in 4, and the prize amount is $2. This makes the payback percentage for a one-spot game 50%.

For a two-spot game, your odds of winning are 1 in 16.63, and the prize is $10. This makes the payback percentage for a two-spot game 60.13%. You can only win this one if you catch both numbers.

The game starts getting slightly more interesting with a 3-spot game because you have two ways to win. If you get all 3 numbers, you win $23. If you get 2 numbers, you win $2.

With a 4-spot game, you can win by matching 4 numbers, 3 numbers, or 2 numbers. The prizes are $55, $5, and $1, respectively.

With a 5-spot game, you can win by matching 5 numbers, 4 numbers, or 3 numbers. The payouts are $300, $20, and $2, respectively.

With a 6-spot game, you win by matching 6 numbers, 5 numbers, 4 numbers, or 3 numbers. The payouts are $1000, $55, $6, and $1 respectively.

With a 7-spot game, you can win by matching 7 numbers, 6 numbers, 5 numbers, or 4 numbers. But you can also win by matching no numbers at all. The prizes for these are $5000, $100, $20, and $2. The prize for matching no numbers at all is $1.

With an 8-spot game, you can win by matching 8 numbers, 7 numbers, 6 numbers, 5 numbers, or no numbers at all. The prizes are $10,000, $550, $75, $6, and $2.

With a 9-spot game, you can win by matching 9 numbers, 8 numbers, 7 numbers, 6 numbers, 5 numbers, or no numbers at all. The prizes are $30,000, $3000, $125, $20, $5, and $2.

Finally, with a 10-spot game, you have the opportunity to win the biggest prize possible in this game. Match 10 numbers and win $100,000. You can also win money by matching 9 numbers, 8 numbers, 7 numbers, 6 numbers, 5 numbers, or no numbers at all. The prizes for these other outcomes are $5000, $300, $45, $10, $2, or $5, in that order.

The rule of thumb for keno games is that the more spots you play, the lower the return to player becomes. That holds true with the rule of thumb for lottery games in general:

The higher the top prize is, the lower the return to player is.

Also, the prize amounts listed here reflect the prize for a $1 ticket. If you buy a more expensive ticket, the prize is commensurately bigger. For example, if you buy a $2 ticket, you can double the prize amounts, and if you buy a $3 ticket, you can triple the prize amount, and so on.

Take 5

Take 5 is another traditional lottery draw game. You choose 5 numbers from between 1 and 39. Match all 5 digits with the numbers drawn, and you win the jackpot for the game. Take 5 drawings are held every day.

A Take 5 ticket costs $5.

The prize amounts vary daily for this game as they’re based on the number of tickets sold. 50% of the ticket sales go toward the prize money, and the jackpot represents 20% of the total prize money.

The New York Lottery’s official site provides estimates of the prize amounts, so you can calculate a return to player percentage for the game based on these estimates.

• Match 5 numbers and win the jackpot of approximately $57,575.70. The odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 575,757.
• Match 4 numbers and win 2^nd prize of about $508.02. The odds of winning 2^nd are 1 in 3386.81.
• Match 3 numbers to win 3^rd prize, which is about $25.66. The odds of winning are 1 in 102.63.
• Match 2 numbers and win the lowest prize, which is just a free ticket for the next drawing. That’s worth $1, and the odds of winning are 1 in 9.62.

Even though these prizes seem low, the return to player for this game is among the best in the lottery. You can expect in the long run to win back 60.4% of your money in the long run with Take 5.

Video Lottery Terminals

Video lottery terminals are more commonly known as VLTs. These games look like slot machines and pay out like slot machines, but the random number generator algorithm is subtly different. The reels on the slot machine correspond to a lottery outcome inside the computer.

VLTs are not available at lottery retailers. Instead, you’ll find these machines at any of New York’s nine racetracks.

Slot machines are a notoriously lousy bet, mathematically, but the return to player for the VLTs at New York’s racetracks compares favorably with most slots in most jurisdictions. The machines are legally mandated to have a minimum return to player of 92%.

Win 4

Win 4 is another game similar to Numbers. The big difference is that instead of choosing three numbers between 0 and 9, you choose four. This affects the odds of winning for obvious reasons. You now have 10,000 possible outcomes instead of just 1000 possible outcomes.

You have the same kinds of bets available in Win 4 – straight tickets, box tickets, and combination tickets. The return to player percentages are comparable to the return to player percentages in Numbers. The prizes are bigger, but you’re less likely to win.

A straight ticket in Numbers, for example, wins 1/1000 of the time, but it only wins 1/10,000 of the time in Win 4.

But the prize amount is 5000 for 1 instead of 500 for 1, making the return to player the same.

And, as with Numbers, you can bet 50 cents or $1 per ticket.

Win 4 has two drawings a day – one at midday at 2:30pm and another at night at 10:30pm.

Scratch-Off Games

As with other state lotteries, New York makes a wide variety of scratch-off games available. These are categorized into the following price ranges:

• $1
• $2
• $3
• $5
• $10+

Some of the $10 tickets offer a top prize of $1 million.

You can usually find close to 100 different games available, and the return to player percentages vary by game. It’s well-known with gambling games like slot machines that the higher denomination games have a higher payback percentage.

The same general guideline applies to scratch-off tickets from the New York Lottery.

Here’s an example:

One of the games available at the time of this writing is a $1 scratch-off game called “$7500 Make My Day.” If you reveal three like amounts on the ticket when you scratch off the ink, you win that amount. If you reveal two like amounts and a “2X” symbol, you win twice that amount.

The game has 13 available prize amounts:

• $7500, with odds of winning of 2,595,600.
• $400, with odds of winning of 1 in 1,038,240.
• $200, with odds of winning of 1 in 692,160.
• $100, with odds of winning of 1 in 82,400.
• $50, with odds of winning of 1 in 2060.
• $30, with odds of winning of 1 in 2908.
• $20, with odds of winning of 1 in 250.
• $15, with odds of winning of 1 in 250.
• $10, with odds of winning of 1 in 71.
• $5, with odds of winning of 1 in 250.
• $4, with odds of winning of 1 in 250.
• $2, with odds of winning of 1 in 12.
• $1, with odds of winning of 1 in 10.

The total return to player for this game is 49.63%. Keep this in mind, too:

That’s the return to player as of the starting game before they’ve sold any tickets. As tickets are sold and prizes are claimed, the return to player changes.

Advantage players can watch the amounts and calculate the return to player for a game like this and only buy tickets when the return to player becomes positive. The concept is similar to counting cards in blackjack.

But let’s contrast the 49.63% payback for this game with a $10 game from the New York Lottery, $1,000,000 Boggle Cashword. This scratch-off game borrows its theme from the word game/dice game that was popular 20 or 30 years ago. The more words you get, the bigger your prize.

Here’s the paytable along with the odds for this game:

• $1,000,000, with odds of winning of 1 in 2,163,000.
• $5000, with odds of winning of 1 in 108,150.
• $500, with odds of winning of 1 in 8240.
• $200, with odds of winning of 1 in 16,480.
• $100, with odds of winning of 1 in 456.
• $50, with odds of winning of 1 in 52.
• $40, with odds of winning of 1 in 50.
• $30, with odds of winning of 1 in 25.
• $25, with odds of winning of 1 in 50.
• $20, with odds of winning of 1 in 25.
• $10, with odds of winning of 1 in 8.

The return to player for this game is 63.12%, which is considerably better than the 49.63% for the lower-priced game.

Where to Buy Tickets and Claim Prizes

Players have three options to buy NY Lottery tickets.

The most convenient option is through the Jackpocket lottery app. New York approved Jackpocket in early 2021 as the state’s only authorized lottery courier service.

Players may also purchase and manage subscriptions for Mega Millions, Cash 4 Life and Lotto games through the NY Lottery subscription center.

Alternatively, you’ll find no shortage of authorized lottery dealers in New York. According to the state’s website, over 14,700 retailers sell New York Lottery tickets. As in most states, the usual types of retailers sell lottery tickets. These include liquor stores, pharmacies, and supermarkets. New York also has a larger percentage of restaurants selling lottery tickets than other states.

How and where you claim your prize depends on how much you’ve won. Be sure to hang on to your lottery ticket, though – you can’t claim your prize money without it. In fact, sign the back of your ticket.

For prizes up to $600, you can claim your winnings at any lottery retailer. You can also claim your prize in person at a Lottery Customer Service Center, or you can mail your ticket in.

If you’ve won more than $600, you’ll need to claim your prize at a Customer Service Center, a local prize center, or by mail. You’ll need identification and a completed claim form – as well as your winning ticket – to claim your prize.

You can find all these addresses in the contact section below.

You have a year to claim a prize; your winning ticket is no longer valid after a year.

New York Lottery History

The history of the New York Lottery begins on November 8, 1966. On that day, voters in the state participated in a referendum establishing a lottery. More than 60% of voters supported the new lottery, which specified that the Lottery funds would be used exclusively for education.

The actual work of administering the new lottery began in the following year when the legislature formed the Division of the Lottery and the Lottery Commission. Both departments fell under the auspices of the Department of Taxation and Finance.

The director of the Division of the Lottery managed the Division with 100% decision-making power.

The New York Lottery’s original slogan was “Your Chance of a Lifetime to Help Education.”

In 1975 and 1976, lottery sales were suspended because of a scandal involving unsold tickets.

In 1978, New York Lotto launched.

In 1981, the New York Lottery saw its first big winner, Lou Eisenberg, who won $5 million.

History repeated itself in 1986 with another scandal involving ticket manipulation.

In 1992, New York launched its Take 5 game. At the time, the only drawing for Take 5 was on Friday night. Since 2001, the Take 5 drawing has happened every night.

In 2009, New York successfully negotiated participation in Mega Millions and Powerball. The New York Lottery started selling tickets for Mega Millions and Powerball in January 2010.

From 2009 until 2014, a game called Sweet Million was available with drawings on Monday and Thursday evenings. The top prize was $1 million. Cash4Life replaced Sweet Millions.

As of early 2013, the New York State Gaming Commission oversees the New York Lottery.

In 2014, New York started selling Cash4Life tickets.

Contact the New York Lottery

Below you’ll find the various points of contact for the New York Lottery:

The easiest way to contact the New York Lottery is via the official contact page: https://nylottery.ny.gov/contact

You can email the New York Lottery at gaming.sm.ContactUs-NYLWebsite@gaming.ny.gov.

The phone number varies based on your reason for calling. The number to the main office is (518) 388-3300.

If you’re with the media, you should call (518) 388-3415.

Finally, if you need to get in touch with the New York Lottery security team, you can do so by calling (518) 388-3416.

The official address for the Lottery is:

NYS Gaming Commission
One Broadway Center
P.O. Box 7500 Schenectady,
NY 12301-7500

To claim a prize by mail, use the following address:

New York Lottery
P.O. Box 7533
Schenectady, NY 12301-7533

Conclusion

The New York Lottery is one of the oldest and biggest lotteries in the United States. You’ll be hard-pressed to find a wider variety of games anywhere in the country. The return to player estimates for their games compare favorably with the games in other states.

The VLTs – which look like slot machines – have excellent payback percentages mandated by state law.

No matter how you choose to play, though, the house has the edge in the New York Lottery. You can take consolation from the knowledge that all the lottery revenue goes to education in the state.

Mega Millions is a multi-state lottery that offers some of the biggest prizes in the world, with a jackpot that has exceeded $500 million on several occasions. Draws take place every Tuesday and Friday night at 11:00pm Eastern Time and tickets are available to buy until 10:45pm EST. The results page is updated with the latest winning numbers straight after each draw has taken place.

How to Play Mega Millions

Play Mega Millions by selecting five main numbers from 1 to 70 and one Mega Ball number from 1 to 25. You can either choose your own numbers or opt for a Quick Pick to have a line generated for you at random. You can also play the same numbers for up to 26 draws in advance. The game costs $2 per line to play.

Why not use the latest MegaMillions Statistics to help you choose your numbers?

You can pay an additional $1 to add the Megaplier to your ticket. A Megaplier number – 2x, 3x, 4x or 5x – is selected at random alongside each Mega Millions draw, and if you have opted in to play, any non-jackpot prize you win will be multiplied by that number. You can only play the Megaplier if you have entered the main Mega Millions draw and you must opt-in when you purchase your ticket.

1. Find an official New York Lottery retailer
2. Choose your numbers, or select Quick Pick
3. Decide how many draws to enter, up to a maximum of 26
4. Choose whether to add Megaplier for an additional $1
5. Keep your ticket safe and wait for the draw
6. Check the latest results to see if you have won!

If you have played in the last 30 days, you can ask your retailer to play your ticket again and you will be given an identical entry for the next drawing.

When each draw takes place, the winning numbers are randomly picked by a mechanical ball machine. Five white balls between 1 and 70 are drawn first. One gold Mega Ball between 1 and 25 is then drawn from a separate set of numbers. It is possible for the same number to appear as both a main ball and the Mega Ball. This process is watched over by independent auditors and is broadcast on television and online.

Prizes and Odds of Winning

The Mega Millions jackpot starts at $20 million. If nobody wins, it will roll over and an even larger amount will be offered in the following draw. There is no jackpot cap in place, so it will keep rolling over to subsequent draws until someone wins it.

To win the jackpot, you must match all five main numbers plus the Mega Ball. There are also eight other prize tiers, starting at $2 for matching just the Mega Ball. The chances of winning the Mega Millions jackpot are 1 in 302,575,350, while the overall odds of landing a prize are 1 in 24. The following table shows the prizes on offer and the odds of winning in each tier.

Megaplier Prizes

If you choose to play the Megaplier you will boost any non-jackpot prizes you win by up to five times their original value. The following table shows the odds of each Megaplier number appearing, along with the prizes that can be won if you opt in to play.

Just the Jackpot

Just the Jackpot offers another way to play Mega Millions, in which you will be given two Quick Pick tickets for $3, rather than the usual price of $4. However, you are only eligible to win the jackpot and you cannot claim a prize in any of the other eight prize tiers. The only way you can win is by matching all five main numbers plus the Mega Ball.

How to Claim

You can only claim Mega Millions prizes from the state in which you bought your lottery ticket.

If you bought your Mega Millions ticket in New York, you can claim prizes up to and including $600 from any licensed lottery retailer in the state. For larger awards, you will need to visit one of the New York Lottery’s Customer Service Centers. You can also claim your prize by mailing the signed winning ticket along with a completed claim form to the New York Lottery headquarters at PO Box 7533, Schenectady, NY 12301-7533.

You have one year from the date of the draw to claim any prizes.

New York Mega Millions Winners

Players in New York have enjoyed considerable success in Mega Millions. Chief among them is the group of co-workers who won $437 million in the draw on January 1st, 2019, who claimed the prize under a trust called New Life 2019, LLC. Another famous winner was Harold Diamond, an 80-year-old retired school principal from Wurtsboro in Sullivan Count who won $326 million after his wife made him stop to buy tickets during a drive to Middletown on Election Day. He chose to take the lump sum of just over $197 million.

The following table shows the five biggest Mega Millions jackpots awarded by the New York Lottery:

A Brief History of Mega Millions

• Mega Millions was originally known as the Big Game when it was launched on August 31st 1996. It was initially played in just six states – not including New York – and draws only took place on a Friday. New York began selling tickets ahead of the drawing on May 17th 2002, at the same time that the game was rebranded as the Big Game Mega Millions.
• The game continued to grow until 2010, when an agreement was reached for states to be able to sell both Powerball and Mega Millions tickets. The increased level of participation helped to propel the jackpots to even higher amounts, and a new record for the biggest lottery prize in the world was set when three players split $656 million on March 30th 2012.
• The format of the game has changed many times, and the latest major refresh came in October 2017 when the number of main balls decreased from 75 to 70 and the number of Mega Balls increased from 15 to 25. The starting jackpot was pushed up from $15 million to $40 million and prize amounts in most tiers were increased.
• The draw on Tuesday 23rd October 2018 was for a record Mega Millions jackpot worth an estimated $1.6 billion, and the ten-figure prize was won by one winning ticket in South Carolina. The jackpot surpassed the game's previous record jackpot, worth $656 million in March 2012.