Florida Lottery
The Florida Lottery is the government-operated lottery of the U.S. state of Florida., the lottery offers eleven terminal-generated games: Cash4Life, Mega Millions, Powerball, Florida Lotto, Pick 2, Pick 3, Pick 4, Pick 5, Fantasy 5, Cash Pop, and Jackpot Triple Play. Participants must be 18 or older to play.
The lottery was established through efforts by Governor Bob Martinez and the Florida legislature to generate revenue for public education in Florida. The lottery's first game, the $1 scratch-off Millionaire, was launched in 1988.
In 2012, Florida was the third-ranked state in yearly lottery revenue with $4.45 billion; revenue passed $5 billion in fiscal year 2013.
History
The Florida Lottery began operation on January 12, 1988, by order of a constitutional amendment approved by Florida voters in the general election of November 4, 1986. The lottery was established to generate additional funding for public education in Florida, with a significant portion of revenue directed to the Education Enhancement Trust Fund. The Bright Futures scholarship program is funded by the Florida Lottery. The minimum age to purchase a Florida Lottery ticket, regardless of game, is 18.The Lottery’s first game was Millionaire, a $1 scratch-off ticket with a top prize of $1 million. Since its inception, the Florida Lottery has introduced a variety of games, including daily and multi-state games. Notable additions include the Play 4 game in 1991, the addition of a cash option to Florida Lotto in 1998, and the launch of Mega Millions tickets in 2013
On July 2, 2008, the Florida Lottery announced it would be joining Powerball, making it the 32nd lottery to join the Multi-State Lottery Association, which includes the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The Powerball game changed to accommodate Florida, which then became the most populous MUSL member. Powerball sales began in Florida on January 4, 2009; the first drawing was held at Universal Orlando Resort three days later for the January 7 drawing. Florida became the home base of the Powerball drawing.
On January 12, 2013, the Florida Lottery celebrated 25 years in operation with a major rebranding campaign including a logo redesign and presence on social media, including Facebook and Twitter.
On February 28, 2013, the Florida Lottery announced it would begin selling Mega Millions tickets on May 15, 2013. Florida became the 43rd state to join Mega Millions.
Bright Futures Scholarship Program
The Bright Futures Scholarship Program was created in 1997 with revenues generated from the Florida Lottery, and was meant to emulate the Hope Scholarship in Georgia. Originally the program disbursed more than 42,000 scholarships totaling about $70 million. Later, the costs for the scholarship ballooned substantially. The Scholarship currently costs the Lottery's coffers more than $436.1 million, with about 170,000 students taking advantage of the program.Instant games
Florida Lottery instant games range in price from $1 to $50, with higher priced tickets typically putting out a higher percentage of sales back into prizes. Payouts range from 58% to almost 77% of sales and average 70%.Draw games
Webcasts of the Lottery's draw games are available on the Florida Lottery web site. According to the Florida Lottery, $1.28 billion in proceeds went to Florida schools, about 5% of the education budget in 2008–2009. See Your .Florida-only draw games
Pick 2
Pick 2, which debuted in Florida on August 1, 2016, is drawn every day during a live broadcast at 1:30p.m. Eastern Time for the midday drawing, and, effective August 5, 2018, 9:45p.m. ET for the evening drawing. It uses a two chambered ball machine, each with balls numbered ranging from 0 through 9. One ball is drawn from each chamber. Anyone who matches the two digits in exact order wins $50 on a $1 ticket.Pick 3
Pick 3 is drawn every day during a live broadcast immediately following the Pick 2 drawings. It is played the same way as Pick 2, except a three chambered ball machine is used. Anyone who matches the three digits in exact order wins $500 on a $1 wager. More recently, more ways to play involving multiple-number tickets were introduced. On August 23, 2010, Florida added a 1-OFF selection to the game. This gives the player 26 extra combinations of his/her number in which the digits are 1 up or 1 down. If the number matched exactly, one would win just $250 instead of $500 for a $1 play and $125 instead of $250 for a 50-cent play. If one of the 1-Off numbers drew, one would win $10 on $1 plays and $5 on 50-cent plays. See the for further details.Pick 4
Pick 4 is drawn every day during a live broadcast immediately following the Pick 3 drawings. This time, a four chambered ball machine is used, and anyone who matches the four digits in exact order wins $5,000 on a $1 wager.Pick 5
Pick 5, which debuted in Florida on August 1, 2016, is drawn every day during a live broadcast immediately following the Pick 4 drawings. This time, a five chambered ball machine is used, and anyone who matches the five digits in exact order wins $50,000 on a $1 wager.Fireball
The Fireball is an add-on to the Pick 2, Pick 3, Pick 4, and Pick 5 games introduced on January 18, 2021. Activating the Fireball doubles the cost of the play.After the Pick games are drawn, one digit from 0 through 9 is drawn and designated as the Fireball number. The Fireball number may then be used by the player to replace any one digit in any of the Pick games. For instance, if the player selects 1-2-3 in the Pick 3 game, and the number actually drawn is 1-2-4, but the Fireball is a 3, the player may replace the 4 with a 3 to create a winning combination.
Because the Fireball creates additional ways to win, a win using the Fireball generally pays a lesser amount than a win using the base play, however, a player can win both from the Fireball and from the base play if the Fireball matches one of the digits naturally.
Fantasy 5
Fantasy 5 is drawn twice every day during a live broadcast at 11:15p.m. and, since March 20, 2023, 1:05p.m. ET. A single ball machine is used with balls numbered from 1 through 36. Five balls are drawn from the machine. Anyone who matches all five numbers in any order wins or shares a top prize pool of around $100,000. Originally, if no one matched all five, the pool rolled down to the 4-out-of-5 winners.The rolldown feature in Fantasy 5 was modified on September 15, 2008. See the Rollover and Rolldown section below for more details.
An astonishing 98 people won the August 28, 2012, Fantasy 5 drawing, reminiscent of a scene in the movie, Bruce Almighty. The reward for each winning ticket was only $1,992.32.
Jackpot Triple Play
Jackpot Triple Play is drawn each Tuesday and Friday during a live broadcast at 11:15p.m. ET. Jackpot Triple Play replaced [|Lucky Money]. A single ball machine is used with numbered balls ranging from 1 through 46. For $1 players select 6 numbers, or may opt to have them quick picked. Two additional rows of 6 numbers are automatically quick picked. Each of the 3 rows play separately for regular prizes. For an additional $1, players add a "Combo" option for that selection, then the numbers of all 3 lines qualify for matching the drawn numbers, even if they appear more than once. The game has a progressive jackpot that starts at $250,000 and can roll up to $2 million. Once the jackpot reaches $2 million and there is no jackpot winner, the excess money for the jackpot prize will be added to the other prizes that the game offers being paid to the players matching fewer numbers on a single row or any numbers on multiple rows upon the drawing and it’ll be that way until someone wins the jackpot prize.Cash Pop
Cash Pop was introduced to the lottery beginning January 3, 2022, and is drawn five times every day. One number from 1 to 15 is selected for a chance to win up to $2,500 in cash prizes. Players can select a single number or up to 15 numbers in each play panel, quick pick to obtain a single random number, or can play all 15 numbers for a guaranteed prize using the "Play All" option. Players can then select the amount of $1, $2, $5, or $10 to play per number, which determines the cash prize they could win, as well as how many consecutive draws they want to play: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 10.Florida Lotto
Florida Lotto is drawn each Wednesday and Saturday during a live broadcast at 11:15p.m. ET. A single ball machine is used with numbered balls ranging from 1 through 53. Anyone who matches all six numbers in any order wins or shares the jackpot.In October 2009, the Lotto Xtra option was introduced, replacing Lotto Plus. Players can pay an additional $1 for each game, multiplying non-jackpot winnings by 2x, 3x, 4x, or 5x. Additionally, Lotto Xtra tickets win a free play for matching 2 of 6 numbers.
Beginning on October 10, 2020, the Lotto Double Play option was introduced for an additional $1 per play, which allows players the chance to win up to $250,000 in an additional drawing following the regular Lotto drawing. Also, the Xtra feature is switched into an instant multiplier for every purchased ticket, which automatically multiplies the non-jackpot prizes by 2, 3, 4, 5, or up to 10 times, and also works on the Double Play additional drawing feature. This means that, similar to any other numbers game that has a multiplier feature, players can’t win the base game or double play prizes for matching 3, 4, or 5 numbers in any order as those prizes are shown as starting prizes for cumulative prize amounts which give players a chance to win upwards of $35,000 without winning the jackpot prize or the double play top prize. The prize for matching 2 numbers in any order is a free “Florida Lotto” ticket that’s eligible for the next “Florida Lotto” drawing.