Hoosier Lottery pays out 10x normal amount on triple-7s

Jun 7, 2016, 7:50 am (4 comments)

Indiana Lottery

INDIANAPOLIS — While the house always wins in the long run, the fun of gambling comes from believing that anything can happen on a single roll of dice, slot machine spin, turn of cards or lottery drawing.

That faith paid off Sunday for nearly 2,000 Hoosier Lottery players who picked 7-7-7 as their winning numbers for the Daily 3 evening game.

Believers in lucky number 7 who bought a 50 cent Daily 3 ticket won $250. A $1 ticket with three sevens on it paid $500.

Altogether, Daily 3 players across the Region and the state won $480,272 Sunday night thanks to the combination of 7s, according to Hoosier Lottery projections.

Carrie Stroud, lottery chief of staff, said the 7-7-7 payout was about 10 times larger than the usual player winnings for Daily 3 on a Sunday.

It also significantly exceeded the $90,000 in average daily sales for the game, which is drawn twice each day.

Stroud said Daily 3 prize payouts tend to slightly top average sales about once a month. It's usually when the same number comes up three times in a row, the winning number is an Indiana area code or happens to match the drawing date.

"It's kind of fun," Stroud said. "It usually kind of regenerates a little bit of excitement for the game."

Stroud said the unusually large payout for the 7-7-7 winners is not expected to affect the lottery's bottom line, since over time, ticket sales will total roughly twice what is paid in prizes.

Lottery rules also set a $1 million cap on Daily 3 prize liability for each drawing.

The odds of three 7s being selected as the winning numbers are 1 in 1,000, the same as any other combination of three digits between 0 and 9.

This is the 17th time that 7-7-7 has come up during the 26 years Daily 3 has been played in Indiana, according to the lottery.

The number 7 is significant in both Christian and Jewish belief, as well as among gamblers.

The Region's area code, 2-1-9, has been the winning Daily 3 combination 12 times.

NWI Times

Comments

sully16's avatarsully16

Congrats to all the lucky ticket holders.

music*'s avatarmusic*

 Hoosier Fate strikes again. Congratulations to all!!Hyper

faber98

bad bet for indiana pik 3 players. 500-1 for 1000-1 real odds is a 50% takeout rate. feel sorry for those people who play this. they have no chance in the long run to make a profit. plus they cap it but very unlikely to go over the million as handle is miniscule. some offshore places pay 900-1 for this bet. of course getting the money out is a task. good to see the indiana lottery get stung on this common combo. generally they clean up daily on this bet.

Get paid's avatarGet paid

Congrats to all the winners. An know one was still struck by lightning.LOL.

End of comments
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