Midday and evening are separate draws with separate results, and neither one carries information about the other. A digit that missed at 2:30 p.m. is not more likely at 10:30 p.m.
The game at a glance
3 digits, 0–9 each
1,000 possible results, repeats allowed, order counts.
2 a day
Every day. Midday 2:30 p.m. ET · Evening 10:30 p.m. ET — 14 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 New York Lottery.
18+
Must be 18+ to buy a New York Lottery draw-game ticket.
New York Numbers, in brief
The New York Lottery brands its three-digit daily game simply NUMBERS, in capitals, and the name is not a coincidence. It is the direct legal descendant of the numbers racket that ran in New York City neighbourhoods for most of the twentieth century, and the state kept the word rather than inventing a new one.
Three digits are drawn, each 0 to 9, so there are 1,000 equally likely results. Draws are midday at 2:30 p.m. and evening at 10:30 p.m., every day, with sales closing fifteen and ten minutes before. Most searches for this game are for one of those two draws by name, which is why New York publishes them as separate result sets.
Plays are 50¢ or $1 and the prizes are set amounts, not shares of a pool. The play slip offers straight, box, straight/box and combination, with front and back pair as a separate two-digit bet.
Every bet type, with the odds
| Bet type | Winning arrangements | Odds | Share of draws | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| StraightThe three digits in the exact order drawn. | 1 | 1 in 1,000 | $500 on a $1 play, $250 on 50¢ | |
| 6-Way BoxThree unique digits, any order. | 6 | 1 in 167 | $80 on a $1 play, $40 on 50¢ | |
| 3-Way BoxTwo identical digits, any order. Half the arrangements, double the prize. | 3 | 1 in 333 | $160 on a $1 play, $80 on 50¢ | |
| Straight/6-Way BoxStraight and box on one ticket. Exact order wins both prizes; any other order wins the box prize alone. | 6 | 1 in 167 | $290 in exact order (1 in 1,000), $40 in any other order | |
| Straight/3-Way BoxThe same combined 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 CombinationAll six orderings played as separate straights on a single ticket, so any order pays the full straight prize. | 6 | 1 in 167 | $500 on a $6 play, $250 on $3 | |
| 3-Way CombinationThree straights covering a number with one repeated digit. | 3 | 1 in 333 | $500 on a $3 play, $250 on $1.50 | |
| Front PairA separate two-digit bet on the first two positions, in order. | 10 | 1 in 100 | $50 on a $1 play, $25 on 50¢ | |
| Back PairThe same bet on the last two positions. | 10 | 1 in 100 | $50 on a $1 play, $25 on 50¢ |
The Instant Win add-on
For $1 more per play, the ticket prints its own numbers to match against your selections, paying up to $500 on the spot. Overall odds 1 in 5.30. It settles at the counter and leaves your entry in the draw untouched.
Where New York Numbers came from
The game the state took over
The numbers game was the largest informal betting market in New York for decades. Bets of a few cents on a three-digit figure were collected door to door and settled daily against a number nobody could rig, usually the closing digits of a racetrack's betting handle. When the state legalised it, the format transferred essentially intact.
The vocabulary survived
Straight, box and pair are not lottery marketing terms; they are the street game's own words, and New York's play slip still uses them. The one change was the payout. A straight on the illegal game paid in the region of 500 or 600 to one at the runner's discretion; the state prints $500 on a chart and keeps it there.
Two draws a day
New York settled on midday and evening rather than a single nightly number, which is why result pages and search queries almost always specify one or the other. Both draws use the same slip, the same prizes and the same odds.
Still broadcast in Spanish
The New York Lottery televises the NUMBERS draw daily in Spanish on Univision New York's WXTV Channel 41, alongside the English broadcast. Few state lotteries maintain a second-language draw broadcast; this one reflects where the game's audience has always been.
Playing digits, honestly
Every play type on the slip pays back the same fraction of what goes into it. A $1 straight is $500 at 1 in 1,000; a $1 six-way box is $80 at 1 in 167; a $1 front pair is $50 at 1 in 100. Work each one out and you land between 48 and 50 cents on the dollar every time.
The old street game and the state game are the same bet at a different price. That is worth knowing precisely because it cuts against the nostalgia: the informal version often paid more per dollar than the licensed one does.
Playing the same number every day does not build up any claim on it. A thousand outcomes, no memory, no accumulation.
New York Numbers — frequently asked
Midday at 2:30 p.m. and evening at 10:30 p.m. ET, seven days a week. Sales for the midday draw close at 2:15 p.m. and for the evening draw at 10:20 p.m. Both draws share the same rules, prizes and odds.
A straight is 1 in 1,000. A six-way box is 1 in 167, a three-way box 1 in 333, and a front or back pair 1 in 100. The odds come straight out of the count of outcomes: six of the thousand results are rearrangements of three different digits.
$500 for a $1 play, or $250 for 50¢. New York's prizes are fixed, so the amount does not depend on how many other tickets hold the number, and it does not roll over when nobody wins.
The winning results are the same; the price and payout are not. A box is one cheap bet that pays a reduced prize in any order. A combination buys every ordering as its own straight, so a six-way costs $6 and pays the full $500.
It is the same format, run by the state. The three-digit bet, the straight and box vocabulary and the daily settlement all came from the informal game. What changed is that the draw is audited, the prizes are published in advance, and the money goes to the state rather than to a private operator.