NJ Lottery announces new evening draw times and other changes

Jun 22, 2020, 6:04 pm (19 comments)

New Jersey Lottery

By Todd Northrop

The New Jersey Lottery is modernizing its core games line-up starting June 29 with a new draw time, new way to watch, and a bigger starting jackpot for Jersey Cash 5.

The evening draw time for Pick 3, Pick 4, Jersey Cash 5, and Pick 6 is changing and moving exclusively to livestreaming. Additionally, the Jersey Cash 5 game is becoming a little harder to win, with a larger starting jackpot — increasing from an estimated $75,000 to a guaranteed $100,000.

New Jersey Lottery evening drawings are moving from 7:57 pm to 10:57 pm daily. New Jersey Lottery Executive Director James Carey announced that starting June 29 New Jersey Lottery's core games will be drawn later in the evening to allow players more time and opportunity to get their tickets for their favorite games.

The later draw time also brings the NJ Lottery's core game drawings closer in timing to the big multi-state games, Mega Millions and Powerball. The midday drawings remain at 12:59 pm, daily.

Live drawings will no longer air on broadcast TV, but instead will be livestreamed on the Lottery's Facebook page and at NJLottery.com. Previously, WPIX-11 and WPHL-17 aired live drawings for the New Jersey Lottery.

Mega Millions and Powerball drawings will still be aired on WABC-TV and WTXF stations.

Draw results can always be found on Lottery Post's New Jersey Lottery Results page soon after each drawing.

Bigger jackpots coming to Jersey Cash 5

Also starting on June 29, the starting jackpots for Jersey Cash 5 are increasing from an estimated $75,000 to a guaranteed $100,000.

To support the larger jackpots, players will select five numbers from 1 to 45 for a chance at the new higher jackpot pool. Currently, players choose five numbers from 1 to 43.

"The new matrix allows the New Jersey Lottery to offer bigger, guaranteed jackpots to our loyal Jersey Cash 5 players," said Executive Director Carey. "In 2019, we awarded jackpot prizes to more than 150 winners. With this change, we will still be able to award plenty of jackpots to players in the Garden State while ensuring the jackpots start bigger and climb faster."

Lottery Post Staff

Comments

Unlucky-Kenny's avatarUnlucky-Kenny

At least they are still going to show their draws!

My state is all closed doors and curtains.

Hiding Behind Computer

Good luck NJ players on your new Cash 5!

Patriot

splunkk's avatarsplunkk

This is nice and all, but what they really need to do is refresh/update Pick-6

jplayer33

What this press release spin doesn't say about the changes to Jersey Cash 5 is that increasing the numbers selection from 43 to 45 numbers will greatly increase the odds of hitting the top jackpot - making it harder for players to win big.

Currently the odds of hitting the top progressive jackpot is about one in 1 million, according to the NJ Lottery. So now with more numbers to chose from it will increase the odds significantly, making the chances of scoring the top jackpot more difficult.

And so while the NJ Lottery spins hard about bigger and faster jackpots that it only so because where now the top jackpot is hit very often and then resets to $75,000, it is likely to be hit less and thus will grow faster as players spend more hoping to hit the larger jackpot.

This is cynical move in the midst of economic upheaval and a pandemic to increase sales or more truthfully, take more money from players. In the NJ Lottery Commission meeting earlier this year for approval of the change, the lottery executive director said the change to Jersey Cash 5 is expected to increase annual sales from 4 to 8 percent and generate an additional $2 to $4 million in net revenue.

Still, for only $1 for a base play and an additional $1 for the extra multiplier (which does not apply to the top jackpot), the odds are far better for Jersey players on this game than in chasing the more expensive national lottery draw games such as Powerball and Mega-Millions.

As to doing away with the television drawings and going all live-streaming, I agree that it is good that it is still a transparent drawing with real balls and not the computerized drawings like in Delaware, which obviously can be easily manipulated since a computer has to be programmed and CANNOT be truly random.

Raven62's avatarRaven62

Don't Do It! We already have Games with Bigger Jackpots (That are all but impossible to Win)!

Making a Game the Players have a Chance of Winning Harder to Win isn't what Players Want!

noise-gate

...and so it begins!

Todd's avatarTodd

Quote: Originally posted by jplayer33 on Jun 22, 2020

What this press release spin doesn't say about the changes to Jersey Cash 5 is that increasing the numbers selection from 43 to 45 numbers will greatly increase the odds of hitting the top jackpot - making it harder for players to win big.

Currently the odds of hitting the top progressive jackpot is about one in 1 million, according to the NJ Lottery. So now with more numbers to chose from it will increase the odds significantly, making the chances of scoring the top jackpot more difficult.

And so while the NJ Lottery spins hard about bigger and faster jackpots that it only so because where now the top jackpot is hit very often and then resets to $75,000, it is likely to be hit less and thus will grow faster as players spend more hoping to hit the larger jackpot.

This is cynical move in the midst of economic upheaval and a pandemic to increase sales or more truthfully, take more money from players. In the NJ Lottery Commission meeting earlier this year for approval of the change, the lottery executive director said the change to Jersey Cash 5 is expected to increase annual sales from 4 to 8 percent and generate an additional $2 to $4 million in net revenue.

Still, for only $1 for a base play and an additional $1 for the extra multiplier (which does not apply to the top jackpot), the odds are far better for Jersey players on this game than in chasing the more expensive national lottery draw games such as Powerball and Mega-Millions.

As to doing away with the television drawings and going all live-streaming, I agree that it is good that it is still a transparent drawing with real balls and not the computerized drawings like in Delaware, which obviously can be easily manipulated since a computer has to be programmed and CANNOT be truly random.

This is not a press release and it's not "spin".  It is an article I wrote, and it does indeed mention that it is harder to win.  Right near the start of the article:

Additionally, the Jersey Cash 5 game is becoming a little harder to win, with a larger starting jackpot — increasing from an estimated $75,000 to a guaranteed $100,000.

jplayer33

Apologies, Todd. It had many of the elements from the press announcement posted on the NJ Lottery website. I sought to add the context of why the change was made and what it means to us players in New Jersey. I'll be more mindful in the future comments about your articles.

lottobrain's avatarlottobrain

This is the type of thing all state lotteries that have computerized drawings should be doing. They can use mechanical drawings in their facilities and stream the drawings for everyone to see. All of the members here that live in these states that have computerized drawings should be bombarding their inbox with this request. People all have smart phones, tablets, computers, etc and can go to the websites and view the streamed drawings. How can we trust the computerized drawings that run on a computer program that can have hidden code built in to allow certain numbers to be drawn on certain dates without actually letting the randomizer code select a number that day. This would be a much "sneakier" way to come up with a draw like the infamous "triple 666's" in PA years ago. Conspiracy theory!??  Maybe not. This would be more for an "outside" person like the programmer of the randomizer program to use to have a friend play a certain number 10 dollars straight or go to several different stores and play a $1 straight, so as not to arouse suspicion . This could happen several times a year.

Here's a 2nd conspiracy theory ...... perhaps a much "subtle" method on the "up and up"used by the programmer and the lotteries since the lotteries all know the most played to the least played numbers we all play. At certain times of the year to have pre-programmed numbers that people play a lot hit so that there are a lot of winners. This could occur near Christmas or some other holiday period when players are trying to vacation, celebrate, buy presents, pay bills, etc. These players would then be able to continue playing numbers and take care of things, and many would probably end up spending back all of the big winnings because we gamblers think we will win again and we have a tendency to play stronger. I leave these thoughts to others to now "bust" or discuss.

sully16's avatarsully16

Quote: Originally posted by Raven62 on Jun 23, 2020

Don't Do It! We already have Games with Bigger Jackpots (That are all but impossible to Win)!

Making a Game the Players have a Chance of Winning Harder to Win isn't what Players Want!

Amen.

Todd's avatarTodd

Quote: Originally posted by jplayer33 on Jun 23, 2020

Apologies, Todd. It had many of the elements from the press announcement posted on the NJ Lottery website. I sought to add the context of why the change was made and what it means to us players in New Jersey. I'll be more mindful in the future comments about your articles.

We try to not just throw raw press releases into the news.  It has happened rarely in the past, and normally only when it's not just a marketing thing. 

When a press release is the source of a news story, of course there will be aspects of the press release that go directly into the news story.  For example, quotes from executives can come directly from the press release, because that's how quotes are released.  Other aspects might be the same.  But overall everything goes through a sanity check to be sure it's not just a marketing puff-piece, and other details that might not be something the lottery wants to discuss are included.  A good example of this is the subject you brought up, which is that the press release did not mention the game would be harder to win, but Lottery Post did mention it.

Raven62's avatarRaven62

Quote: Originally posted by Raven62 on Jun 23, 2020

Don't Do It! We already have Games with Bigger Jackpots (That are all but impossible to Win)!

Making a Game the Players have a Chance of Winning Harder to Win isn't what Players Want!

Previous Matrix: 5/40 (1 in 658,008)!

Current Matrix: 5/43 (1 in 962,598)!

New Matrix: 5/45 (1 in 1,221,759)!

Raven62's avatarRaven62

Quote: Originally posted by sully16 on Jun 23, 2020

Amen.

And so it Goes:

Jersey Cash 5 began on September 20, 1992 as a pick-5-of-38 game. Players won a parimutuel prize by matching at least three numbers. The original version of Jersey Cash 5 did not have a rolling jackpot; instead, if no set of five numbers was a perfect match, the first-prize pool was added to second prize winners (those who matched four of five numbers.) In September 2003, two numbers were added to make Jersey Cash 5 a 5/40 game, and the top prize level was changed to a progressive jackpot. On September 14, 2014, Jersey Cash 5 increased its field of numbers from 40 to 43. Now a 5/43 game, its estimated starting jackpot prize was also increased - from $50,000 to $75,000.

cbr$'s avatarcbr$

In my opinion the New Jersey Lottery New Matrix for it game , is really a way for the    Lottery to recoup from their loss with the Pandemic. Until the players play it. It sound as if it's going to make it harder for them to win.

Cassie8620's avatarCassie8620

Quote: Originally posted by jplayer33 on Jun 22, 2020

What this press release spin doesn't say about the changes to Jersey Cash 5 is that increasing the numbers selection from 43 to 45 numbers will greatly increase the odds of hitting the top jackpot - making it harder for players to win big.

Currently the odds of hitting the top progressive jackpot is about one in 1 million, according to the NJ Lottery. So now with more numbers to chose from it will increase the odds significantly, making the chances of scoring the top jackpot more difficult.

And so while the NJ Lottery spins hard about bigger and faster jackpots that it only so because where now the top jackpot is hit very often and then resets to $75,000, it is likely to be hit less and thus will grow faster as players spend more hoping to hit the larger jackpot.

This is cynical move in the midst of economic upheaval and a pandemic to increase sales or more truthfully, take more money from players. In the NJ Lottery Commission meeting earlier this year for approval of the change, the lottery executive director said the change to Jersey Cash 5 is expected to increase annual sales from 4 to 8 percent and generate an additional $2 to $4 million in net revenue.

Still, for only $1 for a base play and an additional $1 for the extra multiplier (which does not apply to the top jackpot), the odds are far better for Jersey players on this game than in chasing the more expensive national lottery draw games such as Powerball and Mega-Millions.

As to doing away with the television drawings and going all live-streaming, I agree that it is good that it is still a transparent drawing with real balls and not the computerized drawings like in Delaware, which obviously can be easily manipulated since a computer has to be programmed and CANNOT be truly random.

Oh i've heard how it is in DE. You're right.

the same as you're saying, it suckx

premised on the actual computerized of it all, the drawings, there in DE., Yes Nod etc. how it's all programmed etc.,

i know they do complain about about DE lottery games to me a few x a week

+ how they wish it was like, in New Jersey,more transparent.

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