Offering some of the biggest jackpots the world has ever seen, lotteries in the USA include favourites such as Powerball, Mega Millions and popular annuity games such as Cash for Life.
There are plenty of smaller State-specific lottery games, such as the All or Nothing in Texas and New York’s daily Take 5 draws. You’ll be able to find results for these U.S. lotteries and many more here.
Setting the record for the biggest lottery jackpot ever offered in the USA, Powerball takes place three times a week; Monday, Wednesday and Saturday evening at 10:59PM (Eastern Time).
In the draw, five main numbers are drawn from a drum of 1-69, followed by one red Powerball number from a separate drum of 1-26. These make up the base set of winning numbers.
The Double Play draw (also known as Powerball Plus or Second Chance) is an extra draw that players in a number of states can opt in to when purchasing Powerball tickets. The game draws a separate combination of numbers and offers a Division 1 prize of $10 million.
The winner of the record $2.04 billion Powerball jackpot in November 2022 was revealed to be Edwin Castro, who bought his ticket from a service station in Altadena, California.
Powerball resultsThe second of the big national lotteries in the USA is Mega Millions. The draw regularly competes with Powerball in terms of jackpots, with both games offered across the majority of states in the country.
Draws take place every Tuesday and Friday evening, making them less frequent than Powerball, but nevertheless the jackpots offered are truly mind blowing.
Mega Millions has not offered a jackpot quite as high as Powerball’s record, but it has actually given away more prizes of more than $1 billion. A player from South Carolina was the first to receive a ten-figure payout in October 2018, but the biggest prize in the game’s history came a few years later. In August 2023, a ticket holder from Florida won $1.60 billion following a 31-draw run of rollovers.
All five of the biggest wins in Mega Millions have come since 2018, and have gone to single ticket holders rather than having to be shared.
Mega Millions resultsNew York’s take on the daily lottery game with impressive odds is Take 5; a 5/39 matrix lottery with a $1 entry fee and regular big winners.
Similar to Mass Cash, the Take 5 game also requires players to correctly match five winning numbers to land the Division 1 prize, while the ball pool is slightly bigger for the New York game.
Prizes are not fixed amounts, with the exception of the Division 4 prize of $1 for matching two numbers. All other divisions are based on ticket sales and the number of winners.
Draws take place daily at 10:30pm (Eastern Time), with winning numbers published shortly after. Players betting internationally from South Africa can bet on one to four of the winning numbers.
NY Take 5 resultsPopular for its annuity Div. 1 and Div. 2 prizes, Cash for Life is a multi-state US lottery game offered every day from 9pm (Eastern Time).
The game itself uses a 5/60 + 1/4 ball pool matrix, where players need to select five main numbers plus one additional Cash Ball. Tickets cost just $2 per entry and there are an impressive nine prize divisions that pay out in each draw.
The Division 1 prize offers a grand prize of $1,000 every day for life (around R14,000), while the Division 2 prize is an impressive $1,000 every week for life! Division 3-9 prizes are not annuity style, instead they are fixed amounts ranging from a $2 ‘break even’ prize to $25,000.
Cash 4 Life is also offered internationally through the bookmakers, however some providers may not offer the annuity prizes. You should check the prize payouts before placing your bets.
Cash for Life resultsThe Florida Fantasy 5 lottery is identical to South Africa’s Daily Lotto game in terms of the ball matrix; it’s a 5/36 game that takes place daily.
The prize payouts are also similar between the two games. The Fantasy 5 has an approximate Division 1 jackpot of $200,000, which, if no players win the prize, will roll down and be shared between winners in Division 2. This roll down feature is what makes the games so popular, as matching fewer numbers can win you a significantly bigger prize.
Unlike the SA Daily Lotto, the Division 4 prize in Fantasy 5 is not a cash prize, instead it is a fixed prize of a free Quick Pick into the next available drawing.
FL Fantasy 5 resultsThanks to the very generous odds of winning and modest grand prizes, the Mass Cash lottery is a 5/35 daily game that works similar to South Africa’s Daily Lotto (which is a 5/36 daily game).
Unlike the Daily Lotto, where the prizes are determined by ticket sales and the number of winning tickets in each division, Mass Cash uses fixed prize amounts. This means that you always know what you can win, before you play. Winning the division 1 prize will land you $100,000, division 2 will pay out $250, and division 3 will pay $10.
The game is available for betting in South Africa, with four prize divisions depending on the amount of numbers you choose to pick. Unlike the main game, you can win by matching one, two, three or four numbers. Betting internationally does not offer a prize for matching all five numbers. Be sure to check with your bookmaker before placing your bets to see which markets are available.
The All or Nothing game is unique in the way it is played compared with other popular U.S. lotteries. As the name suggests, you win the jackpot by matching all the winning numbers, or none of them.
In the draw, 12 winning numbers are drawn from a pool of 24 and, based on the prize chart for the game, the amount of numbers that you do or don’t match determine how much you win.
Draws take place four times a day from Monday – Saturday at 10am (Morning), 12:27pm (Day), 6pm (Evening) and 10:12pm (Night) Central Time.
If you’re betting from South Africa, you’ll be able to choose between one and eight possible numbers that you predict will be drawn, which means that the nature of the game is not the same when betting.