By Kate Northrop
Yet another single-day prize payout record was set by the New Jersey Lottery's Pick 4 game when the popular number combination 1-9-5-7 was drawn on March 5.
The Pick 4 midday and evening drawings on March 5 set a new single-day record for prize payouts, with lottery players in New Jersey winning a total of $1,105,318 in one day.
It beats out the last record set on Dec. 28, 2022 when New Jersey players won a total of $1,023,210 in prizes, making the new record about $82,000 greater.
An overwhelming majority of the prize payout from both days came from one Pick 4 drawing.
Perhaps we can attribute these milestones to the Boomer generation — both sets of winning numbers for the two draws were just one number away from each other and match common birthyears for the aforementioned generation — 1-9-5-6 for the drawing in December and 1-9-5-7 for Sunday's drawing.
According to the Lottery, 262 tickets won $2,500 each playing 1-9-5-7 straight based on a $0.50 wager, a major increase from the last time 1, 9, 5, and 7 were drawn straight on March 26, 2022 when players only won $467.50 on the same $0.50 straight wager.
The increase in payouts is thanks to a game change the Lottery enacted in November 2022 that awards fixed prize amounts in Pick 3 and Pick 4, preventing many players winning on the same combination from having to split a big Pick 3 or Pick 4 prize.
"We are thrilled to see Pick-4 players in New Jersey experiencing such success and want to congratulate all the winners on their big payouts," Lottery Executive Director James Carey said in a press release. "We encourage all players to keep playing and trying their luck with this exciting game."
Pick 4 drawings take place twice a day at 12:59 pm EST and 10:57 pm EST. The winning numbers, jackpot, and prize amounts can be found on Lottery Post's New Jersey Lottery Results page.
Nice that their lottery thought of the players (for a change) and lets all players get the winnings and not pari-muteul for those small winnings.
Isn't NJ mechanical ball drawings as well???
mjwinsmith
Nice job!
It shows you the majority of number players are of the retiree demographic, who plays the year they were born. Had the numbers been drawn under the pari-mutual system, they would have received much less.
Was the Statler Brothers' "Class of 57" playing on New Jersey radios?
Pari-mutuel is too unpredictable for me. On Dec 6, 2022 the CA Lottery drew "4444" and the payout was $669.
But then about a week later, "7176" straight had a payout of $7516!
Congrats to all the lucky winners.
Anytime a state offers a 50% takeout for a daily numbers game you are being hosed. Give me the pari mutual payoff anytime and do not play a number that is going to be commonly played. Ma. averages 700.00 for a 3 digit number. Sure, once in a while it goes below 500.00 when 123 comes in but who is idiotic enough to play that combination. Many do, I get it.
That's why I never play Powerball and Mega Millions. Payouts for the more common prizes are often far less than 10%.
I can win $500 with far, far better odds and half the investment playing the Pick-3.