By Todd Northrop
Starting today, Arkansas Lottery players can play the state's new Natural State Jackpot game, featuring a rolling jackpot that starts at a minimum of $25,000.
Lottery officials estimate the average jackpot will be more than $150,000.
The Arkansas-only jackpot game was created in response to player request, with dozens of calls to Lottery headquarters asking for a lotto-style game exclusive to Arkansas players.
Tickets for the new game went on sale this morning at 12:01 a.m., and the first drawing is tonight at 8:00 p.m. Central Time.
On each $1 Natural State Jackpot ticket, players choose five numbers between 1 and 39. Or, players can choose a Quick Pick and have the lottery terminal randomly assign five numbers.
Drawings are held at Arkansas Lottery Headquarters every night except Sunday, at 8:00 p.m. During each drawing, which is supervised by auditors, a computer randomly assigns five winning numbers.
The winning numbers will be displayed on Lottery Post's Arkansas Lottery Results page soon after each drawing.
If there are no top-prize jackpot winners in a drawing, the jackpot increases by $5,000 for the next drawing. If one or more tickets wins the jackpot, the next drawing the jackpot resets to $25,000. If more than one ticket matches all five numbers drawn, the jackpot is split by each winning ticket.
Prizes and odds
Natural State Jackpot has a full complement of prizes for matching fewer than five numbers. The complete set of prizes and odds can be found in the following table.
| Match | Prize | Odds |
| 5 out of 5 | Jackpot | 1 in 575,757 |
| 4 out of 5 | $300 | 1 in 3,387 |
| 3 out of 5 | $7 | 1 in 103 |
| 2 out of 5 | $1 | 1 in 10 |
The overall odds of winning a prize are 1 in 9. Winning tickets must be redeemed within 180 days of the purchase date, which is printed on the ticket.
As with other Arkansas Lottery games, retailers that sell a jackpot-winning ticket will receive a selling bonus of 1% of the prize.
"For Arkansas players, the Natural State Jackpot really is a dollar for a dream," said Bishop Woosley, Lottery Director. "We will have Arkansas winners regularly, they will win a large sum of money, and they will be buying those tickets right here at home in Arkansas."
"Dozens of calls to Lottery Headquarters asking for lotto-style game" Wow, that's all it took to bring about this new game!
What's the population of Arkansas now about 24 people.
Drawings will be selected by computer, wonder if that's what these dozens of people requested as well.
Congrats Arkansas on your new game, sure do wish Oklahoma had a game like this....
Arkansas got the lottery after Oklahoma, and they have better games than we do....
Come on Oklahoma get your GAME together......
I know Oklahoma hasn't much to offer DCF.
But maybe if you and a couple of friends, made a dozen or so calls to the Lottery Headquarters you could get your wish!
This game sounds similar to Ohio's Rolling Cash5 (5/39) which starts with jackpots of $100,000.00 and pays $1 for match 2, $10 for match 3 and $300 for match 4.
looks like a good game but im a little sad the lower prizes are rven there, and the start prize is so low. i know some people like to win something, but it would be good if that win is actually worth talking about. id drop the lower 2 prizes, and raise the others. this is going to be easy to win compared to other american lotto's , so make it worthy of the luck.
Massachusetts has a much better game for the money. Mass Cash a pick 5 (1-35), where the jackpot is always 100K.
Odds are only 1:324,632. I hit lower tier prizes with this game all the time.
Is it as good as the Wind Fall game they ended that attracted out of state gamblers?
Never played that game, although in hind sight I should have.
Mass Cash is attractive because of the excellent odds. Although you could hardly retire on 100K, it's still a nice chunk of change!
mcginnin56
I laughed so hard I though I was going to pass out. These couple dozen people must be using
mind control. Maybe they meant to say was "only a couple dozen people spoke out against it."
Anyway looks like a good game except for the low startup JP.
RL
better yet Mc; my mother & now my hubby call me Sybil
& she(Sybil) had seven personalities so all I need to do is come up with five more personalities
Comparing jackpot size to other states is fairly pointless. OF COURSE the jackpot s smaller. Um, population size, you think?
I think this is a great development for Arkansas players. It really stinks that they can't have real lottery drawings, but at least there is now an in-state jackpot game offering much better odds.
Every state should offer at least one game like this (I agree with the comments about Oklahoma needing a game like this).
A lot like Show Me Cash in Missouri, which is a very popular game. Tonight's jackpot is $317,000!
Now your getting somewhere!!
Your multiple personalities may be responsible for your new pick 5 game. This type of thinking "Outside The Box" is just what is needed.
Glad you had a good laugh RL.
I'm just amazed that with just a few calls, you can light a firecracker under the pants of these lotto officals.
Maybe that's how this last guy became president.
Todd
I agree, any game that pays $1.00 for a 2of5 gets my vote. These small prizes can add up and make a
big difference over time. I have read of a few people from Arkansas winning the MO-539. I think in Japan
they have a 5-31 that plays accross the entire nation so JP's run in the millions and it draws twice a week.
I would love to see something like that in the US.
RL
I love Mass Cash (5/35) because it costs only $1 and if you want, you can double, triple, quadriple the jackpot to whatever number you want up to a certain limit. There have been instances where people played their numbers 10 times in the same draw and hit 10 times. Thats a cool $1M right there. I'd go crazy.
I was surprised we even got a game like this since our population is so small. I am stil waiting on them to do another million dollar raffle though.
"Maybe that's how this last guy became president.
"
Hmm, dozen of people called and asked for a new game?
I think I know the name of the game they were asking, 700B Giveaway with the odds 1 : 0.005
It was well played, I heard.
Hey tvboris. BTW congrat's on your brand spankin' new blue bar!
Is that all it was? I was thinking it was more like a 700T Giveaway, with the odds of 1: -1000
News Alert!
LANSING, Mich. -
Michigan Lottery officials plan to introduce the winner of this month's $337 million Powerball jackpot during a news conference scheduled for Friday.
The lottery says the announcement is planned at the lottery's headquarters in Lansing.
Michigan Lottery spokeswoman Andi Brancato says Monday that details about the ticket-holder won't be released until the event.
Thanks for the update DP.
Should be a very interesting news conference!!!
Every few months I hear about some player who played scored $200-600K, because they played their numbers multiple times.
These types of prizes are giving MM's second place prizes a run for their money.
Compare the odds: Mass Cash: 1:324,632 vs MegaMillions: 3,904,701
With all the lottery problems Arkansas has had to deal with, just maybe this will be a turning point for the better.