More prizes doled out since recent rule change
By Kate Northrop
Lottery players across the Garden State won the New Jersey Lottery's Pick 3 top prize, setting a new payout record in a single day.
Thousands of tickets won the Pick 3 top prize when the lucky combination 7-7-7 was drawn on the evening of Thurs., Jan. 26.
It was the evening of Lucky 7s — not only were all three winning numbers 7-7-7, but the drawn Fireball number was 7 as well.
Thanks to a rule change in November 2022, players can now win fixed prizes for Pick 3 and Pick 4 instead of sharing the winnings on a pari-mutuel prize structure, resulting in higher prize payouts and bigger payout records.
In December 2022, Pick 4 set the highest single-day payout record in the state when players won over a million dollars in prizes. 267 tickets each won $2,500 playing 1-9-5-6 straight on a $.50 wager.
On Thursday, 2,862 tickets each won $250 playing 7-7-7 straight on a $.50 wager and resulted in over $1 million in prizes doled out yet again. The last time 7-7-7 was drawn on June 28, 2022, each ticket only won $114.50 based on the same $.50 straight wager when winners had to share the available prize pool.
"We are excited that our Pick-3 players found luck in 7-7-7 and want to congratulate all the winners on their big payouts," Lottery Executive Director James Carey said. "We encourage all players to keep playing and trying their luck with this exciting game."
Pick 3 and Pick 4 drawings take place twice a day at 12:59pm and 10:47pm EST. The winning numbers and prize amounts can be found on Lottery Post's New Jersey Lottery Results page.
Many happy People, congrats to all of them.
That was a very good rule change. I feel sorry for players who have pari-mutuel prize set-ups in their states. If you are going to play you should have a predetermined fixed amount that is paid to you for winning, not an amount that is divided up and distributed to hundreds of others depending on how many people happened to play that particular number on that particular day.
You couldn't be more wrong. This would only work out if the numbers drawn are ones that are commonly played like 7-7-7, 1-2-3, 2-4-6. In a Pari-mutuel state no one plays those for the reason stated. A 500.00 set payoff for 1000 possible combinations is a total rip off. 50% takeout. Ma. averages 700.00 for a 3 digit payoff. Granted when it is a common number it pays less than 500.00 I have seen them commonly pay 800.00 and up with hard numbers usually with a 0 involved and 8's & 9's. Avoid 1's like the plague.
The truth of the matter is that 777 pays for itself everyday. Do you even know how many people loss everyday on 777 and 7777 crazy 😧
I guess it doesn't matter in a fixed payoff state. In Ma. having two numbers the same seems to pay out the most.
The article states: "In December 2022, Pick 4 set the highest single-day payout record in the state when players won over a million dollars in prizes. 267 tickets each won $2,500 playing 1-9-5-6 straight on a $.50 wager."
That's not a lot compared to when the NYS Lottery drew 777 as the Midday number on 02/11/2022.
More than twice as many people live in NY state than in New Jersey so that has to be a factor.
Strangely the NJ Lottery media release about this on its website did not mention a huge reason why so many people had the 777 combination. Since the recent prize payout change, the lottery has been running television commercials announcing that "a Pick 3 $1 winning straight bet now pays a guaranteed $500 - even 7-7-7."
The commercials also featured visual images of the 7-7-7 combination, including the numbers on the headband atop a reindeer head.