Lottery reveals adjustments to Hit 5 a week after announcing rebranding of its Daily Game
By Kate Northrop
OLYMPIA, Wa. — The Washington Lottery revealed modifications to its popular Hit 5 lottery game just a week after announcing its rebranding of "Daily Game" to "Pick 3". Starting Sunday, August 30, players will see those changes in effect.
Currently, Hit 5 offers drawings three times a week and for a chance to win a minimum starting jackpot of $100,000. At the end of this month, the drawings will be run daily, with the top prize remaining a rolling jackpot that starts at $100,000 and increases $10,000-$20,000 with every roll.
"Washington's Lottery has been offering a draw-five game for thirty years now," Marcus Glasper, Director of Washington's Lottery said in a news release. "We love seeing the look on winners' faces, so the decision to offer our players more chances to win was an easy one."
The Lottery is also changing the payout for the non-jackpot tier prizes. For matching four numbers, the prize will increase to $150 from $100, the prize for matching three numbers increases to $15 from $10, and matching two numbers will award a free ticket from $1. The top prize will remain a rolling jackpot.
Additionally, players will now pick five numbers between 1 and 42 instead of 1 and 39. This changes the overall odds of winning from 1 in 8.77 to 1 in 10.1.
Daily drawings will continue to take place at 8:00 pm PT, and the ticket cost stays the same at $1 per play.
Hit 5 was introduced in 2007 as a replacement to Quinto, a similar draw-five game that debuted in 1990. During fiscal year 2019 (July 2018 - June 2019), the Washington Lottery sold more than eight million Hit 5 tickets. The largest prize was $510,000, which was won in April 2019 by a player in Vancouver.
To comply with social distancing, players are urged by the Lottery to mail in tickets to claim prizes up to $100,000. Winners of prizes worth $100,000 or more should call Lottery Headquarters to make an appointment for a safe and secure in-person claim.
On the surface it seems like it is good for players, but the odds worsened slightly. The good thing is it'll be a daily game.
5/39 Combinations = 575,757
5/42 Combinations = 850,668
Illinois did the same thing a few years ago. They market it as a good thing for players but in the end it made it more unattractive. It went from 5/39 to 5/45, one draw a day to two.
Rollovers used to be from 100k to 175k to 250k to 400k to 600k and so on. Now it's the same generic rollover of 50k so it's 100k to 150k to 200k to 250k.
I don't bother with the game anymore.