Hot Lotto

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Hot Lotto is the multi-state lottery game available in eight US states and the District of Columbia. It is administered by the Multi-State Lottery Association (MUSL), which also operates the Powerball lottery game.

Hot Lotto drawings are held every Wednesday and Saturday at the MUSL's headquarters in Urbandale, Iowa. Normally, the Hot Lotto drawing is immediately following the 10:59 p.m. Eastern Time drawing of the Powerball. Unlike Powerball, Hot Lotto drawings are not televised, and are drawn with a computerized RNG instead of a traditional rubber ball and gravity mix or air mix and ping pong ball machine.

The record Hot Lotto jackpot was a US$10.8 million annuity (US$6.5 million cash value) won on September 15, 2004.

[edit] Playing the game

To play the game, a player pays one dollar (US$1)and picks five distinct numbers between 1 and 39 plus one additional number (the “Hot Ball”) between 1 and 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 26 payments over 25 years. If no one picks all five correct numbers and the Hot Ball, the jackpot prize pool is rolled over into the following drawing.

Jackpot winners have the option of receiving an annuity prize or a single lump sum cash payment. The lump sum payment is the present value of the annuity, which is typically approximately 50% - 60% of the annuity value depending on prevailing interest rates.