For four lucky Ohio lottery players, 2009 will begin with a windfall of one million dollars.

The winning numbers for the Ohio Lottery's New Year's Raffle game were announced this evening.  The full list of lottery results can be found on Lottery Post's Ohio Lottery Results page (www.lotterypost.com/results/oh).

The $20 tickets for the raffle went on sale November 14, 2008.  Of the 500,000 tickets that were available, all but about 38,000 were sold.

This is the second consecutive New Year's Raffle for the Ohio Lottery.  The game has "the best odds to win $1 million dollars," according to the game's official literature.

The odds of winning $1 million are 1 in 125,000.

In addition to the four top prizes of $1 million each, other prizes include two prizes of $100,000 and 500 prizes of $500.

There were also 5,500 instant prizes awarded randomly to raffle ticket-buyers at the time of purchase.

When buying a raffle ticket, if a player heard the tune "You're in the Money" coming from the lottery terminal, they received a coupon for a $100, in addition to the New Year's Raffle ticket.  Instant Win coupons can be redeemed immediately at the lottery retailer.

All prizes are lump-sum cash payments.

The Ohio Lottery had a slight twist on ticket sales: tickets were sold in reverse order, starting with the number 500000.  They would have reached 000001 if all the tickets were sold out.

Winners of the top two prizes can redeem their prizes starting Friday, Jan. 2, 2009 at the Ohio Lottery office.  $500 winners can cash their winning tickets at lottery retailers starting Jan. 1.