Lucky 7 (New Jersey)

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Lucky 7 was a brief, now virtually forgotten, lottery numbers game offered by the New Jersey Lottery offered in February and March, 1990. It began due to the popularity of neighboring Pennsylvania's Super 7, which at the time laid claim to the largest jackpot in United States lottery history. Lucky 7 was drawn Saturday nights, and withdrawn after just the fifth drawing, with no prior notice. ("Advanced play" was not available for Lucky 7.)

Players chose seven numbers out of a field of 77; the lottery drew 10 numbers, which effectively made Lucky 7 a keno game, the only such game to date in New Jersey outside the Atlantic City casinos. A ticket that matched at least four numbers won a parimutuel prize; matching all seven won the jackpot, which was paid as a 20-year annuity; no lottery game in the US had offered a cash option at that time. Since it was a keno game, it was possible for multiple jackpot winners in the same drawing to have different sets of winning numbers.

The jackpot prize was not guaranteed as in Pick 6; it started as low as $300,000. It was hit only once, in the third drawing, for $1 million; there were only two drawings after that.

Seven-number jackpot lottery games in the US (other than Pennsylvania's Super 7, which lasted into the mid-1990s, and Lotto*America, which is now Powerball) have proven unpopular.