Games: an inside look.
All have been invited to the party. Now get to know the games themselves, their odds, and their randomness.
Draw Games
Draw games are games like Powerball, Pick 3, and Pick 4 where you try to match your numbers to the numbers that are randomly drawn. You can choose Quick Pick and let the terminal pick numbers for you. Or just pick your own like say, from a fortune cookie. And if you want the thrill of a jackpot game with the chance for an instant win, ask for Fast Play games. Fast Play progressive jackpot games give you the same instant-win excitement of scratch-offs PLUS the growing-jackpot thrill of draw games. It’s a unique game that’s quick to play and quick to win, without having to wait for a drawing. Know your games. That’s a good thing.
Scratch-off Games
Scratch-off games are games you can grab at a NC Education Lottery retail location and scratch to reveal instant wins. Scratch with a coin, your thumb, whatever you choose. There’s no reason to wait. Instant fun is a scratch away.
Digital Instants
Digital Instants are games that can be played right from your phone, on the lottery website, or the NC Lottery Official Mobile App. There are loads of games to choose from too. Your phone was meant for far more than selfies.
Odds are, you need to know about the odds.
Knowing the games is one thing. But it’s important to know how odds and randomness have a big role.
The odds help explain the chance of winning a prize from a scratch-off or draw game. Say you purchase a game with 1 in 4 odds. Those odds apply to all of the tickets that were printed for the game, but that doesn’t mean that every fourth ticket that you purchase will be a winner. There’s no way to know where the winners are, because lottery games are always random. Each ticket does its own thing. Everything’s random. That’s the fun part.
Know that as prizes get bigger, the odds to win usually get tougher. To win any Powerball prize, the odds are 1 in 24.87. But to take home the humongous jackpot prize, the odds are 1 in 292.2 million. Big difference.
Lotto balls, not crystal balls.
You know where to tune in to watch a lottery drawing, but do you know what the outcome will be? That’s not possible; no one can predict that. Sometimes people think they can predict which numbers are “due” to be drawn. Maybe a particular number hasn’t been selected in a drawing for a while and so people believe the number will have a turn soon. But remember, each draw is random and prior results don’t mean a thing. The numbered balls in the draw machine have no memory and no plan of action. It might be fun to know which numbers are ‘hot’ or ‘cold.’ And if it adds to the fun, that’s okay! But it doesn’t have any impact on which number is selected. Zip. Zero. Zilch. It’s only fun to play if every number has the same chance of winning, so every person has the same chance of winning. Random keeps it fun.
How to Get Lucke-Rewards® Points
Your play can go even further. Enter your tickets to earn Lucke-Rewards® points that can be used to enter bonus drawings for the chance to win prizes.