1-Off looks like the generous bet because you can miss and still get paid. Add its four tiers up and a $1 ticket returns $250 once in a thousand, $24 six times, $4 twelve times and $8 eight times, which comes to $506 back for every $1,000 staked, or about 51 cents on the dollar. That is the same neighbourhood as every other play on the chart.
The game at a glance
3 digits, 0–9 each
1,000 possible results, repeats allowed, order counts.
3 a day
Every day. Midday 12:29 p.m. ET · Evening 6:59 p.m. ET · Night 11:34 p.m. ET — 21 draws a week.
1 in 1,000
The same for every one of the possible results, including the one you picked.
Fixed amounts
Printed in advance and paid in full to every winner. $500 for a $1 straight.
$0.50 or $1 a play
Operated by the Georgia Lottery.
18+
Must be 18+ to buy a Georgia Lottery ticket.
Cash 3, in brief
Cash 3 is the Georgia Lottery's three-digit daily game. Three numbers are drawn, each from 0 to 9, giving the same 1,000 outcomes every game of this shape has. What sets Georgia apart is frequency and a bet type most states skip: three draws a day, and a 1-Off play that pays when your digits nearly land.
The midday, evening and night draws run seven days a week, so a single number played every draw is 21 chances a week. Plays are 50¢ or $1, except Combo, which is priced per combination and starts at $3.
Prizes are fixed amounts published in advance. Georgia caps its total exposure on the game at $10 million and reserves the right to suspend sales of a specific number or play type rather than reduce anyone's prize. Nothing rolls over and no draw pays more than any other.
Every bet type, with the odds
| Bet type | Winning arrangements | Odds | Share of draws | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| StraightAll three digits in the order you played them. | 1 | 1 in 1,000 | $500 on a $1 play, $250 on 50¢ | |
| 6-Way BoxThree different digits in any order. Six of the thousand outcomes are rearrangements of your number. | 6 | 1 in 167 | $80 on a $1 play, $40 on 50¢ | |
| 3-Way BoxA number with one digit repeated has only three arrangements, so it wins half as often and pays twice as much. | 3 | 1 in 333 | $160 on a $1 play, $80 on 50¢ | |
| 6-Way Straight/BoxA $1 ticket split into a 50¢ straight and a 50¢ box. Exact order collects both halves. | 6 | 1 in 167 | $290 in exact order (1 in 1,000), $40 in any other order | |
| 3-Way Straight/BoxThe same split ticket on a number with a repeated digit. | 3 | 1 in 333 | $330 in exact order (1 in 1,000), $80 in any other order | |
| 6-Way ComboAll six orderings bought as separate $1 straights on one ticket. Full straight prize whatever the order. | 6 | 1 in 167 | $500 | |
| 3-Way ComboThree straights covering a number with a repeated digit. | 3 | 1 in 333 | $500 | |
| 1-Off — exact matchThe top tier of a 1-Off ticket, which is a single wager covering four tiers at once. This one is a straight hit, and it pays half what a plain straight would. | 1 | 1 in 1,000 | $250 on a $1 play, $125 on 50¢ | |
| 1-Off — one digit offOne position came out one higher or one lower than you played it, the other two exact. Three positions times two directions is six outcomes. | 6 | 1 in 167 | $24 on a $1 play, $12 on 50¢ | |
| 1-Off — two digits offTwo positions off by one, in either direction, one exact. Twelve outcomes, which makes this the shortest-odds tier on the ticket. | 12 | 1 in 83 | $4 on a $1 play, $2 on 50¢ | |
| 1-Off — three digits offEvery position off by one. Two directions on each of three digits gives eight outcomes. | 8 | 1 in 125 | $8 on a $1 play, $4 on 50¢ | |
| Front PairThe first two digits in order. The third is free, so ten outcomes pay. | 10 | 1 in 100 | $50 on a $1 play, $25 on 50¢ | |
| Back PairThe last two digits in order, first digit free. | 10 | 1 in 100 | $50 on a $1 play, $25 on 50¢ |
Where Cash 3 came from
Georgia's first draw game
Cash 3 was on sale from the Georgia Lottery's earliest days, and it is still the game with the most drawings on the calendar. The three-digit daily number is the format every US lottery reaches for first: it is cheap to run, familiar to players, and it settles the same night.
Why a third draw
Most states settled on midday and evening. Georgia added a night draw, pushing the last cutoff past 11 p.m. The reason is straightforward — the game's revenue scales with the number of settlements per day, and a digit game is one of the few formats where a third draw costs almost nothing to add.
The 1-Off play
Georgia sells 1-Off on both Cash 3 and Cash 4, and it is the one play type here with no equivalent in most states. It pays a reduced amount when your digits are within one of the drawn digits, up or down. That near-miss idea is old, but printing it as its own priced bet with a published prize table is not.
No wild-ball add-on
Several states have bolted an extra drawn digit onto their daily games under names like FIREBALL or Wild Ball. Georgia has not. There is no substitute-digit add-on on Cash 3, which keeps the chart shorter than Florida's or Texas's.
Playing digits, honestly
Three draws a day is three times the chances and three times the stake. Nothing about playing midday, evening and night makes the numbers more likely to fall your way; it just settles the bet more often.
The 1-Off prize ladder is not in order of size, and that confuses people. Two digits off pays less than three digits off because two-off has twelve winning outcomes and three-off has only eight. The prizes track the counts, not the near-ness.
Georgia publishes a hot-and-cool numbers page. It is a record of the past, not a forecast. Each draw resets all ten digits in all three positions.
Cash 3 — frequently asked
Three: midday at 12:29 p.m., evening at 6:59 p.m. and night at 11:34 p.m. ET, seven days a week. That is 21 drawings a week, more than most states run on a three-digit game.
One ticket, four tiers. You win if your digits match exactly, or if one, two or all three of them came out one higher or one lower than you played. Nine counts as one away from zero, which is why each digit has two neighbours and the tier counts work out to 1, 6, 12 and 8 outcomes.
A straight is 1 in 1,000. A 6-way box is 1 in 167 and a 3-way box is 1 in 333. Front and back pairs are 1 in 100. The shortest odds on the board belong to the two-digits-off tier of a 1-Off ticket at 1 in 83, and it pays $4.
No. Several states sell an extra drawn digit that can substitute for one of the winning numbers, at double the ticket price. Georgia does not offer one on Cash 3, so the published chart is the whole game.
Fixed. The rules describe a fixed payout game, so a $1 straight pays $500 regardless of how many other people hold the number. Georgia manages the risk with a $10 million liability limit and by suspending sales of a heavily backed number, never by cutting a prize that has already been won.