New state record for most players to win a top prize
By Kate Northrop
50 players walked away from the Mass Cash drawing on Sunday, Dec. 6 with a claim to the $100,000 top prize, breaking the state's previous all-time record of 34 jackpot winners in one drawing.
Mass Cash is one of the Massachusetts Lottery's popular nightly draw games where players choose five numbers from a pool of 35 for a dollar a play. 50 players across the state did just that after the ball drawing machine produced the numbers 3, 9, 15, 21, and 27.
It is miraculous that 50 people managed to choose the same winning numbers, but taking a closer look at the winning sequence might provide an easy explanation.
"Interestingly, on the bet slip that you must fill out in order to purchase a ticket, if you look at it, the numbers that all came up are in a vertical line, one on top of the other, and sequentially they're all six digits apart," Christian Teja, Director of Communications at the Lottery told WCVB.
It's a pretty common way for players to quickly fill out the pay slip should they decide to pick their own numbers over a Quick Pick.
As for the payout, matching all five numbers means winning the $100,000 fixed top prize. However, the Lottery has a failsafe in the game rules that limits the game's prize amounts, to prevent massive losses should the total prizes won for a drawing exceed 1,000% of the net sales for that drawing.
Based on that calculation, each of the 50 top prize winners will receive $48,271.
Unfortunately, the rule also shrinks the prize amounts for the second- and third-tier prize winners who match four and three numbers, respectively. Those who matched four numbers in the drawing on Sunday will receive $120 instead of $250, while players who matched three will get $4 instead of $10. The lower prize amounts are reduced to prevent the Lottery from awarding $5 million across the state in a situation like this.
"Fifty is the all-time high," Teja added. "We had a 34 back a number of years ago and 10 to 12 from time to time, but 50 is the one to beat."
WOW!! Always wondered if I would see the numbers 'LINE' up on the playslip!
Looks like some smart people made it pay off for them - congrats!
"Interestingly, on the bet slip that you must fill out in order to purchase a ticket, if you look at it, the numbers that all came up are in a vertical line, one on top of the other, and sequentially they're all six digits apart," Christian Teja, Director of Communications at the Lottery told WCVB.
Were any of the 50 "Wiseguys?"
Historically that's what happens in Mass.
When I first read this news clip I found this.
12/05/20, NC Cash 5 had 4 numbers line up on 3rd line horizontally on play slip.
9-25-28-32-36.
Good luck everyone.
What sucks is that they paid only $48,000 instead of $100,000 for the jackpot. What if you were playing the same number for decades and you finally win that night. And people won playing the same number multiple times hoping to win $100,000 times however many times they played.
Maybe one player had played the number multiple times.
Good luck all.
It is wild because the supposed "experts" who give tips on how to improve your chances of winning the lottery always say DON'T choose numbers diagonally, vertically, or horizontally on the bet play slip.. Now we know that is not always true...LOL! Great win everyone!
8,9,31,44,50,51,and 23
OK this is my 1st time posting anything in lotterypost.com.
Pick 3.032,063,605,340
"What sucks is that they paid only $48,000 instead of $100,000 for the jackpot."
The possibility of winning less than the usual amount is why a lot of people say not to play combinations that are likely to be played by a lot of other people, but All 50 of them won $47,750 more than anyone else who bought a ticket. Obviously you'd play the winning numbers if you knew what they were going to be, but since we don't know what the numbers will be the sensible strategy is to play a set of numbers that will pay more if they do come up. Maybe a couple of the winners actually thought that combination was special, but most of them would have played different numbers if they knew how man others were picking "their" numbers and that the prize would be half of what it usually is.
A long time ago, before quick picks, PB or MM were available, the NY lottery ran ads telling people not to play obvious patterns for lotto. I forget the exact numbers, but the diagonal patterns starting from the upper left and the upper right on the play slip were the most commonly played combinations, with over 8,000 people playing each them for a typical drawing. For the (then) starting annuity jackpot of $3 million 8,000 winners would each end up with perhaps $250. At least with a maximum expected prize of 100k it's really unlikely that any of the 50 winners has to beg to get their job back after finding out they didn't get the whole jackpot.
Great system! lol Congrats to the lucky winners.