HOT LOTTO

'Hot Lotto' is administered by the United States' Multi-State Lottery Association (MUSL), which also operates the Powerball lottery game. Currently, it is available in 10 of its 31 members (nine states and the District of Columbia; see list below). It began in April 2002, as a way of MUSL celebrating the 10th anniversary of Powerball.
Hot Lotto drawings are held every Wednesday and Saturday (the same drawing days as Powerball) at MUSL's headquarters in Urbandale, Iowa. Normally, the Hot Lotto drawing is immediately following the 10:59 p.m. Eastern Time (9:59 p.m. Central; 8:59 p.m. Mountain) drawing of Powerball. Unlike Powerball, Hot Lotto drawings are not televised, and are drawn with a computerized RNG (using radioactive material, rather than the usual kind of RNG, since "true" computerized drawings are very unpopular with lottery players) instead of a traditional rubber ball/gravity mix or air mix and ping pong ball machine.
The Hot Lotto jackpot for Wednesday, September 5, 2007, is an estimated $2,410,000 (annuitized); the cash option, which is a "floating percentage" of the annuity which varies according to interest rates, is $1,420,000. The most recent jackpot win was on August 4, 2007 on 'two' tickets; one bought in Minnesota (its fifth Hot Lotto jackpot winner), the other in New Mexico (its first), the only time so far a Hot Lotto drawing produced multiple jackpot winners. Each ticket is worth approximately $990,000 (annuitized) or $588,818 cash. The Minnesota winner came forward on August 8, 2007 and chose the cash option. There have been nine rollovers since the jackpot was last won.
The record for the game's largest prize belongs to John Hall of Indianola, Iowa; he won just under US$20 million in the January 13, 2007 drawing. He chose the cash option of about $11.9 million.

Contents

Playing the game

Participating states

Hot Lotto expanding to 13 members by January 2008

Winner breakdowns

External links

Playing the game

To play the game, a player pays one dollar (US$1) and picks five distinct numbers from 1-39 plus one additional number (the “Hot Ball”) from 1-19 drawn from a separate pool.
The player wins according to the following:

Matches	Payoff	Odds of winning
Hot Ball only	$ 2	1: 39
1 number with Hot Ball	$ 3	1: 47
2 numbers with Hot Ball	$ 4	1: 183
3 numbers without Hot Ball	$ 4	1: 108
3 numbers with Hot Ball	$ 50	1: 1,950
4 numbers without Hot Ball	$ 50	1: 3,575
4 numbers with Hot Ball	$ 500	1: 64,349
all 5 numbers without Hot Ball	$ 10,000	1: 607,744
all 5 numbers with Hot Ball	Jackpot	1: 10,939,383

Overall odds of winning a prize are approximately 1:16.
Jackpot prizes are determined by a modified parimutuel system.
The minimum jackpot prize is a US$1 million annuity disbursed in 25 equal payments over 24 years. If no one picks all five correct numbers and the Hot Ball, the jackpot prize pool is rolled over into the following drawing, increasing by at least $50,000 each time.
Jackpot winners have the option of receiving the annuity prize (mentioned above), or the present-day cash value (see below.) The latter is the then-current value of the annuity, which is typically approximately 55% - 60% of the annuity value depending on prevailing interest rates. All Hot Lotto members give jackpot winners a 60-day window in which to choose either cash or the annuity; the overwhelming choice has been the lump sum. Depending on where a ticket is purchased, winners (jackpot or otherwise) have from 90 days to one year in which to claim their prize.

Participating states

★ Iowa

★ Kansas (joined in March 2006)

★ Minnesota

★ Montana

★ New Hampshire

★ New Mexico (November 2006)

★ North Dakota (June 2004)

★ Oklahoma ('future; January 2008')

★ South Dakota

★ West Virginia
''Also available in''

★ District of Columbia (April 2004)
Two other US lotteries have agreed to join; they will do so in October 2007, and January 2008,
respectively, which would give Hot Lotto 13 members (see below.)
The minimum age to purchase a Hot Lotto ticket is 18, except in Iowa, where it is 21. In many, if not all, cases, minors may receive a Hot Lotto ticket as a gift.
MUSL member Idaho had offered an unrelated in-state game called "Hot Lotto" in the 1990s. It was a pick-5-of-32 game that rolled down if nobody won the top prize; this may explain why Idaho has never offered the multi-state Hot Lotto. MUSL's ultimate goal for this game may be to expand it to all of its 31 members; however, for it to happen, a name change probably would be in order, due to the Idaho version of Hot Lotto.
Also, MUSL members (i.e. Connecticut, Missouri, Wisconsin) have been reluctant to replace their "classic lotto" games with Hot Lotto. A revamped version, with longer jackpot odds than the current 1-in-11 million, might entice such states since a "bigger" Hot Lotto would consistently offer higher jackpots than these small games.
The District of Columbia was to be among those involved in starting the game, but, at the time, there were personnel problems at the D.C. Lottery. However, it was the first MUSL member to join Hot Lotto "in progress".
Subscription play for Hot Lotto is available only within North Dakota. However, all jurisdictions offering Hot Lotto allow advance play; the number of draws varies by member.
Since Hot Lotto is a multi-state game, a jackpot winner selecting "cash option" does not necessarily collect their prize in lump sum. This is because each of the 10 (expanding to 13 by January 2008) jurisdictions holds on to the jackpot money until after the jackpot is won. In such a case, a cash option winner first receives a check representing the cash in the jackpot pool accumulated from the winning MUSL member; then a second check for the remainder of the cash value, for the cash accumulated from the jackpot pools from each of the other lotteries selling Hot Lotto.

Hot Lotto expanding to 13 members by January 2008

The Oklahoma Lottery announced on June 26, 2007 that it will join Hot Lotto in January 2008. In addition, two other MUSL members (to be named later) are joining, one in October 2007; the other in January 2008 [1] (the same month as Oklahoma.) This will give Hot Lotto 13 members, one more than Mega Millions, although the latter is a super-jackpot game. There is no official word as of August 3, 2007 whether the double matrix (5/39 + 1/19) will be changed to accommodate the additional MUSL members; the jackpot odds of 1 in just under 11 million have been the same since the game's inception in April 2002 as a six-state game.

Winner breakdowns

From January 1, 2003 to August 4, 2007, there have been 16 jackpot-winning tickets, each from a different drawing, except there were two winning tickets on August 4, 2007. (2002 information unavailable on MUSL site.) In the history of the game, only two jackpot winners have chosen the annuity. All others have taken the cash; two of the three most recent winners (since July 4, 2007) have not decided as of August 8, 2007 which payment option they prefer.
Hot Lotto has never been hit at the minimum $1 million; in fact, each jackpot win has followed at least six consecutive drawings with no top prize winner. The minimum jackpot win on one ticket (annuity value) was $1.3 million; however, the August 4, 2007 drawing had two winners, each receiving about $990,000 ($589,000 cash) before withholdings.

External links

★ D.C. Lottery

★ Garron Lottery products

★ Iowa Lottery

★ Kansas Lottery

★ Minnesota Lottery

★ Montana Lottery

★ New Hampshire Lottery

★ New Mexico Lottery

★ North Dakota Lottery

★ Oklahoma Lottery

★ South Dakota Lottery

★ West Virginia Lottery

★ Hot Lotto (MUSL site)