Numbers 32 through 52 get picked far less often than the low ones people take from birthdays, but that does not make them likelier to be drawn. Every five-number combination out of 52 has the same chance. The only thing a high spread changes is how many other tickets you would split a jackpot with.
The game at a glance
5 of 52 + Star Ball
Mon · Wed · Sat
United States
1 in 25,989,600
The same for every possible combination, including this one.
All divisions →
1 of 10
Star Ball: you pick it yourself, drawn from a separate pool.
18+
Must be 18+ to play Lotto America in most states, 19+ in Nebraska and 21+ in Iowa.
Lotto America, in brief
Lotto America is a multi-state draw game run by the Multi-State Lottery Association (MUSL), the same non-profit consortium behind Powerball. A play costs $1 and asks you to pick five numbers from 1 to 52 plus one Star Ball from 1 to 10, drawn from its own separate pool. Sixteen jurisdictions sell it, mostly smaller-population states plus Washington D.C., which is the market the game was rebuilt for.
Draws are held Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday nights at 10:15 p.m. Eastern. The jackpot starts at $2 million and grows draw by draw until someone matches all five numbers plus the Star Ball, then drops back to that floor. A winner can take the annuity spread over 29 years or a single reduced cash payment. Jackpots here stay in the low tens of millions rather than the headline hundreds, because the player base is far smaller than Powerball's.
For an extra $1 per play you can add the All Star Bonus, a multiplier of 2x, 3x, 4x, or 5x drawn separately each night. It applies to all eight non-jackpot tiers and can lift the match-five prize as high as $100,000. Since April 2023 the numbers themselves come from a certified random number generator rather than physical ball machines, a switch several US lotteries have now made.
Prize tiers
5 numbers + Star BallJackpot
The jackpot, starting at $2 million and paid as a 29-year annuity or a reduced lump sum
5 numbers, no Star Ball
A fixed $20,000
4 numbers + Star Ball
A fixed $1,000
4 numbers, no Star Ball
A fixed $100
3 numbers + Star Ball
A fixed $20
3 numbers, no Star Ball
A fixed $5
2 numbers + Star Ball
A fixed $5
1 number + Star Ball
A fixed $2
Star Ball only
A fixed $2, twice the cost of a base play
Where Lotto America came from
The first Lotto America, 1988
MUSL launched the original Lotto America on 13 February 1988 so that smaller state lotteries could pool ticket sales into a jackpot none of them could fund alone. It began as a pick-7-of-40 game costing a dollar, and was later reworked into a pick-6-of-54 format. Sixteen lotteries took part. The name disappeared in April 1992, when MUSL replaced the game outright with a new draw called Powerball.
Back from the shelf in 2017
The name then sat unused for 25 years. MUSL brought it back after Hot Lotto, its mid-tier multi-state game, collapsed under a fraud case in which the association's own information-security director rigged a drawing. Hot Lotto held its final draw on 28 October 2017. Ticket sales for the revived Lotto America opened on 12 November 2017 with the first drawing three days later, replacing Hot Lotto in twelve of the thirteen states that had sold it.
Schedule and draw-machine changes
The revived game ran twice a week until a third weekly draw was added on 18 July 2022, moving it to Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday. In April 2023 MUSL retired the physical ball machines for Lotto America and switched to a certified random number generator. The pick-5-of-52-plus-Star-Ball matrix has stayed exactly as it was at the 2017 relaunch, so the jackpot odds have not moved in nine years.
Picking numbers, honestly
Adding the All Star Bonus doubles what a play costs and multiplies eight of the nine prize tiers, but it does not change a single one of the odds. The multiplier is drawn from its own set after the numbers, so a losing ticket stays a losing ticket whether 2x or 5x comes up that night.
Switching from ball machines to a random number generator in 2023 did not make the game less random or more predictable. A certified generator is tested and audited the same way ball sets are. Reading past results for a pattern in the output is the same losing exercise it was when the balls were physical.
Lotto America — frequently asked
In sixteen jurisdictions: Washington D.C., Delaware, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, and West Virginia. It is not sold nationwide the way Powerball is.
A second number from 1 to 10, drawn from its own pool. You need it plus all five main numbers to win the jackpot.
Only the name. The original ran from 1988 to 1992 as a pick-7-of-40, then a pick-6-of-54, and MUSL turned it into Powerball. The current game shares nothing with it beyond the brand, which MUSL revived in 2017 for a replacement to Hot Lotto.
Two dollars instead of one. The add-on multiplies non-jackpot prizes by 2x, 3x, 4x, or 5x, so the $20,000 match-five tier can pay up to $100,000. The jackpot itself is never multiplied.
Because far fewer tickets are sold. Sixteen mostly small jurisdictions feed the prize pool, and the odds are shorter at 1 in 25,989,600 against Powerball's 1 in 292 million. The top prize therefore gets hit more often and has less time to build.