Multi-state game to be offered in yet another state
By Kate Northrop
The Nebraska Lottery officially announced today that it will begin offering tickets for the multi-state game Lotto America.
The Mississippi Lottery is not the only state lottery to recently announce its decision to join the multi-state game. Just today, the Nebraska Lottery revealed that it will start offering the game, too.
In addition to Mega Millions and Powerball, Nebraska lottery players will soon have another multi-state draw game to play, with progressive jackpots starting at $2 million and $1 per play.
"We are excited to add Lotto America to our product lineup," Lottery Director Brian Rockey said in a press release. "Many players have asked us to offer Lotto America in the past, and the game fits in well with our existing draw games. As with all Nebraska Lottery games a portion of every ticket sold goes to support good causes across Nebraska."
Tickets for Lotto America will officially go on sale in Nebraska on May 19.
Lotto America is currently offered by 13 other U.S. lotteries. By the time the end of May rolls around, Nebraska and Mississippi will have bumped that number up to 15 U.S. lotteries.
At $1 per play, Lotto America is a draw-style game in which players select five numbers from 1 to 52 and for the red balls and then one number from 1 and 10 for the blue star ball. Players can also opt for the Quick Pick option to have the terminal randomly select the numbers for you.
With a starting jackpot of $2 million, it grows until someone matches all five red balls in any order plus the blue star ball to win the jackpot. The odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 25,989,600.
The largest Lotto America jackpot ever won was $40 million, claimed by one man in Iowa.
There are also eight other non-jackpot prizes offered by the game, which range from $2 to $20,000. All winning numbers, odds, and prize amounts can be found on Lottery Post's Lotto America Results page.
Players can add the All Star Bonus to their ticket for an additional $1 per play, which multiplies winnings by two, three, four or five times. The multiplier number is randomly selected before each drawing but does not apply to the rolling jackpot.
Players may purchase up to 12 weeks-worth of consecutive drawings in advance, or a total of 36 drawings, with a multi-draw ticket.
Lotto America is operated by the Multi-State Lottery Association (MUSL). It was re-launched as the replacement for the scandal-ridden Hot Lotto game in 2017 after it was revealed the former MUSL Security Director Eddie Tipton had rigged the Hot Lotto computerized drawings (among other games) to win large lottery jackpots for himself and his accomplices. You can watch the video we produced on that topic on our YouTube channel that goes into more depth about the entire scheme.
The game switched from traditional mechanical ball drawings to computerized drawings in April 2023.
Proceeds from the sale of lottery tickets in Nebraska are allocated towards environmental initiatives, education, the Nebraska State Fair, and problem gamblers assistance. According to the Lottery, over $95 million has been raised for the Nebraska Lottery's beneficiary funds since its inception in 1993.
The first Lotto America drawing for Nebraska will take place on Mon., May 20, with sales starting Sun., May 19. Drawings take place every Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday at 9:15 pm Central Time and are conducted via computerized drawings in a dedicated draw room in Johnston, Iowa.
I must admit, I never play this game! It's usually just PB or MM and that's when the jackpot is record breaking lol
Lotto America is run by MSLU, the Powerball people. Supposedly, it replaced the Hot Lotto game which was destroyed by Eddie Tipton who programmed winning numbers in for relatives, friends, and eventually himself when he worked for the lottery, and was caught and sent to jail. The Lotto America game was supposed to be a ball drawn game when they started it and was drawn in private after the Powerball drawing. No actual video of such a drawing ever took place that I know of and the game seemed to act like RNG to me. Then at some point within the last couple of years , MSLU association took over the Lucky for Life lotto game and changed it from actual ball drawing to RNG and at the same time announced that the Lotto America game would also change to RNG, Since that change, I have never been successful at winning anything with either of these games, though I used to win something fairly regular in the Lucky for Life game as a ball drawn game. The original goal of the MSLU for the Hot Lotto game was stated that it would be an easier game for players to win more often as it originally only had 35 numbers. But as time went on , they kept changing it and adding more numbers, probably because players were not playing it that much, and they could try to get more playing if it had bigger jackpots. The RNG program used in it and the Lucky for Life game seem to have been designed to give combinations that are very random so that one receives very few of the actual winning numbers and certainly not often in the same combo to produce a winner. At least that is what happens with me when I get a QP. So good luck to Nebraskans.
I guess somebody snitched on Eddie Tipton after either he or someone he was tipping the programmed numbers to stopped telling someone else and they started singing. lol
The story of Eddie Tipton is quite interesting and can be informative if you pay attention to the details. You may want to read it sometime when you get bored.
If you're curious, we actually made a video about Eddie's story and how he got caught: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajPs0pY9I_I&t=1s