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Hot Lotto

Hot Lotto is administered by the U.S.' Multi-State Lottery Association (MUSL), which also operates the Powerball game. Hot Lotto is available in some of the 33 MUSL jurisdictions; Maine is the latest to join, in October 2009. The first drawing was on April 10, 2002 as part of MUSL celebrating the 10th anniversary of Powerball. Hot Lotto gives smaller lotteries an opportunity to create the "middle-sized" jackpots found in jurisdictions with large populations, such as in California and Texas.

Hot Lotto drawings are held every Wednesday and Saturday, the same nights as Powerball, at MUSL's headquarters in Urbandale, Iowa. Normally, the Hot Lotto drawing is immediately following the 9:59 p.m. Central Time Powerball drawing. Unlike Powerball, the Hot Lotto drawings are not televised, and are drawn with a random number generator (RNG), instead of a rubber ball/gravity mix or air mix and ping-pong ball machine. (Hot Lotto drawings had been televised until early 2006. While Powerball drawings moved to Florida in 2009 with the Florida Lottery joining that game, the Hot Lotto drawings remain in Iowa.)

Playing the game

To participate, a player pays $1 and picks five numbers from 1-39, plus one additional number (the “Hot Ball”) from 1-19 drawn from a second, separate pool, or asks for terminal-selected numbers, known by some lotteries as "quick-picks", for the five white numbers, the "Hot Ball", or all six. (The "Hot Ball" in any game, on a ticket and/or actually drawn, can be a duplicate of one of the five "white" numbers.) Players also have the option of wagering $2 on any set of five numbers and the Hot Ball, winning triple the normal amount for any prize except the jackpot; this is called "Sizzler".

The player wins as follows:

Overall odds of winning are approximately 1:16.

The Hot Ball cannot "cross over" to be used to match any of the five regular numbers, and vice versa.

"Sizzler"

The Sizzler option for non-jackpot prizes began in January 2008. The Sizzler is similar to Powerball's PowerPlay; however, the lower-tier prizes are automatically tripled (if the Sizzler option was chosen for that game) rather than PowerPlay's variable multiplier. (In North Dakota, the Sizzler option is known as Triple Sizzler).

MUSL's use of the word Sizzler resulted in legal action by the Sizzler steakhouse chain. Idaho delayed offering the Sizzler tripler for that reason.

Prize payouts

Prizes are determined by a modified parimutuel system; except under special circumstances, only the jackpot pool (among the prize categories) is shared among multiple winners.

The minimum jackpot prize is $1 million annuity disbursed in 25 equal payments over 24 years. If there is no selection matching 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. (When Hot Lotto began, the minimum rollover was $100,000; it was reduced later in 2002.)

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 55% to 65% of the annuity value depending on prevailing interest rates. In general, Hot Lotto members give jackpot winners time in which to choose either cash or the annuity; the usual choice is cash (a jackpot ticket defaults to annuity if the ticket holder(s) fail to make the choice within the 60 days, except in Idaho (30 days); furthermore, unlike other Hot Lotto Group members, Idaho "starts the clock" with the drawing, rather than when the ticket is claimed.) Depending on where a Hot Lotto ticket is purchased, winners (jackpot or otherwise) have from 90 days to 1 year in which to claim their prize (see below).

Hot Lotto participants

Original members (game began in April 2002):
  • Iowa
  • Minnesota
  • Montana
  • New Hampshire
  • South Dakota
  • West Virginia


The six original Hot Lotto members listed above have each sold at least one jackpot-winning ticket.

Joined in progress:

  • District of Columbia (April 2004)
  • North Dakota (June 2004)
  • Kansas (March 2006)
  • New Mexico (November 2006)
  • Idaho (October 2007)
  • Oklahoma (January 3, 2008)
  • Delaware (January 28, 2008)
  • Vermont (July 2009)
  • Maine (October 2009)

Except in Iowa (21), the minimum age to purchase a Hot Lotto ticket is 18.

Idaho had offered an unrelated game called Hot Lotto in the 1990s. It was a pick-5-of-32 game whose "jackpot" rolled down if no top prize winner.

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. (New Hampshire also is considering selling Hot Lotto subscriptions.)

Since Hot Lotto is a multi-jurisdictional game, a jackpot winner selecting "cash option" does not necessarily collect their prize in lump sum. This is because each of the 15 members hold on to the accumulating jackpot money until after the jackpot is won. 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 funds accumulated from the jackpot pool from each of the other lotteries.

The District of Columbia, and later Idaho, added the Sizzler option after it became available in January 2008.