Massachusetts Lottery says it's not that uncommon
By Kate Northrop
Six tickets winning $100,000 in the Massachusetts Lottery's Mass Cash draw game were sold at the same store on Monday, but the Lottery says that it's not as strange as you might think.
A total of seven tickets won the $100,000 Mass Cash top prize on Monday, with six of them sold at the same retailer.
While it may seem like a peculiar occurrence, the Massachusetts Lottery said that it's not actually that uncommon. It is possible that one player bought six tickets with the same numbers, thus winning the top prize six times over.
Considering Mass Cash "offers the best odds of winning $100,000 in any of [the Massachusetts Lottery's] game's," the Lottery added, that was very likely the case.
The odds of matching all five numbers in Mass Cash are 1 in 324,632. A full list of odds and corresponding prizes can be viewed on the Prizes and Odds page.
Super Petroleum on Newport Avenue in Quincy sold the six winning tickets, and AM/PM Convenience on Bearses Way in Hyannis sold the seventh top prize-winning ticket of the day.
Mass Cash drawings take place every day at 9:00 pm EST, and results are available on the Massachusetts Lottery Results page. Each play costs $1.
Nice wins...maybe all the same player.
...and of course I'm going to comment...A mechanical ball game!
Newsflash: Two folks split the Megamillions ticket that was worth over $1 billion in Ilinois. Apparently they know each other and stayed anonymous!
Not just in Mass. There are stories from Mich. about the guy who won the second prize on Mega Millions 5 times and someone who won the daily Keno 250k prize 3 times on the same day from the same store in Ypsilanti.
I will let Michigan players in on a secret. If you get 6 times the 250k daily keno prize then that is more than any prizes awarded on Michigan Club games and Michigan internet games and is more than the cash amounts on all the scratch tickets in Michigan except the $5 and $10 Cash for life tickets (when they are offered) and the $30 and $50 scratchers so I am surprised that we don't hear more people hitting the daily keno here 6 times on the same day. (Yes that's right! For $6 you can "outwin" the prize amount on a $20 scratcher)
Technically you may be able to win more on club Keno but since that started in 2003 nobody has ever won more than $1,000,000 so it is pretty safe to say the $6 on daily Keno is a better bet.
Although I cant remember when it happened, a guy in Massachusetts played Mass Cash with ten identical lines and won a million dollars. Was less than five years ago that it happened. It was reported in The LP news.. too lazy to search for it.
The Mass Lottery is correct in that it happens frequently. When I lived in New York near the Massachusetts border, I used to drive over to Great Barrington Mass and buy Mass Cash tickets where I bought multiple identical lines. I did that because I read a list of top prize winners report on The Mass Lottery's website that identified all top prize winners for Mass Cash. I quickly learned that many Mass Cash players have won $200,000 or $300,000 by playing the same line two or three times. It happened quite a bit which tells me that players in Mass are very aware of other players winning multiple jackpots with the same ticket.
Same type of thing happened in New York when they had the online game Sweet Million. A guy in Suffern NY bought a bunch of Sweet Million tickets all with an identical line of six numbers. Sweet Million's top prize was one million dollars and it was not a parimutuel game so that guy won five or six million dollars. G5
I've been know to play PowerBall with the Power Play option added. I buy five lines with the first five numbers being identical. (I'm playing for a second place win) The ticket costs me 15 dollars, but if those first five numbers matched, then because I added the Power Play option, I'd win 10 million dollars. The second place prize for PB is a set 2 million dollars (with the PowerPlay) and it's not parimutuel. Odds are approximately 11 million to 1 against me. Not too bad odds to win 10 million bucks. G5
Hi G5!! You may as well add the Double Play feature to make it $20. The first double play winner in Florida did that. He played the same numbers (not exact but +/- one digit) on all 5 lines and won the 10 million. He had a second line that won $500 on the same ticket. Florida lottery posted it on Twitter.
This is not strange at all. A lot of players in Massachusetts actually play like this in hopes of winning more. I literally do this myself. I play masscash with multiple tickets and for the same draw in hopes of maximizing prize for just a dollar per ticket. It's very common. You just hear about the people that win once in a blue moon. Massachusetts has the highest percentage number of players and the highest percentage pay out of all lotteries. A lot of people will find creative ways to gamble. Me being one of them, it's just it unfortunately hasn't worked out for me, yet. Lol
Yes, I do this as well. I've done this for years with mega millions as well as powerball. It's a very risky bet but hey. Lol
"The second place prize for PB is a set 2 million dollars (with the PowerPlay) and it's not parimutuel."
Its usually not parimutuel but it can be if the payout is too high. Too high means the payout has to exceed what's in the prize pool plus what's in a reserve fund, and maybe some other funds if they feel like it.
When there were 110 winning tickets for the 2nd place prize back in 2005 the rules would have allowed them to pay out substantially less than the usual 2nd place prize, but they decided to suck up the loss and pay the full amount. Paying more than they have to if a single person won with 5 tickets could result in a different decision. As long as nothing unusual results in an unusually high number of winners beyond one person playing a few identical numbers I imagine they'd either have enough or take a modest loss, but by using the same 5 numbers you're paying full price for tickets that are for only 20% of the jackpot.
Quite a while ago, after I started buying five identical lines, I wondered if they actually would pay me 10 million if I was ever so lucky as to match the first five numbers. That lead me to read the official rules with regard to payouts for second place where I learned as you so correctly wrote that it might not be parimutuel if the prize pool cant cover all of the second place winners payouts. Although it sure would be a nice problem to have to see what I'd actually get.
It's true, I'm definitely paying full price for 20% of the jackpot. But who cares? PB is a suckers bet no matter what you do. And because I let the terminal chose the PB for me, all five lines on my ticket are usually slightly different. It's possible that I could win the jackpot on one line and second place on the other four. I'm not holding my breath, but if that ever happened I'm sure my face would be on TV screen in the country. (Not that I'd want that to happen!) G5
Glad to see they paid out all 10 million.
The one different number on each line is The PowerBall. I mark the QP box on my bet slip for the PowerBall. What happens is I get five slightly different lines on the ticket. The first five numbers on each line are the same, but each PB number is different. (Most of the time ) I've actually ended up with two lines of six numbers being identical because the terminal chose the same PB number twice. G5
Connecticut, the neighbor to Massachusetts's south, just had a situation on Monday, September 26.
CT uses the same matrix of 35 numbers for you to choose 5 in Cash5. Top prize is supposed to be $100,000. But, that night there were 2 top prize winners. They were paid only $81,607 apiece. The 4/35 should be $300, but was $245. The 3/35 should be $10, but was $8.
So, borrowing a tag line from some lottery's advertising, although you play with an expectation of winning the advertised prizes, "you never know."