Hot Lotto multi-state lottery game to end in October

Aug 9, 2017, 8:15 am (14 comments)

Hot Lotto

By Todd Northrop

Hot Lotto, a multi-state lottery draw game currently played in 14 states, will end this October. The final Hot Lotto drawing will be conducted on Saturday, Oct. 28.

"It is normal practice in the lottery industry to change your gaming mix and keep products fresh in the field. Based on overall performance after 15 years, it was time to make a change," West Virginia Lottery Director Alan Larrick said. "The 14 lotteries that offer Hot Lotto are working on new game options that will be more popular with our players and that includes a new $1 draw game that will launch later this year."

Because of the end date, the participating state lotteries have begun to step down advance ticket sales of the Hot Lotto game and multi-draw purchases will not be available past Oct. 24.

Prize money not awarded at the conclusion of the Hot Lotto game will be returned to players as prizes in other lottery products by the participating jurisdictions.

Hot Lotto drawings are conducted every Wednesday and Saturday at approximately 10:40 p.m. Eastern Time. Tickets cost $1 per play and $2 with the Sizzler option. The jackpot is a cash-only prize with state and federal withholding taxes paid.

The first Hot Lotto drawing was on April 10, 2002. The largest jackpot produced by the Hot Lotto game was a $19.82 million grand prize awarded on Jan. 13, 2007.

The game was at the center of perhaps the biggest lottery scandal of all time, after Hot Lotto changed over from real lotto ball drawings to computerized drawings (where a computer picks random drawing numbers). It was discovered through dogged investigation by the Iowa Lottery that Eddie Tipton rigged a $16 million Hot Lotto drawing in Dec. 2010, taking advantage of the fundamentally-flawed idea of computerized drawings.

Later, investigators uncovered multiple other computerized drawings rigged by Tipton in various states. Tipton faces up to 25 years in prison for the crimes.

Although the state lotteries replaced the computerized drawing machines with others they say Tipton did not rig, the Hot Lotto game suffered and did not recover from the lack of player confidence caused by the rigging of the computerized drawings.

Although the end of Hot Lotto closes the book on that one game, lottery players continue to prod state lotteries to end the practice of computerized drawings. Lottery Post has been a public advocate of ending computerized drawings since 2005, when it predicted the exact scenario that took place in the Eddie Tipton drawing scandal.

Timeline of the biggest crime in US lottery history

The following is a compilation of Lottery Post news coverage chronicling the Hot Lotto mystery and subsequently discovered crime.

We start the timeline with a news story indicating that only 3 months remained for the $16 million Hot Lotto jackpot to be claimed.

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

Lottery Post Staff

Comments

haymaker's avatarhaymaker

RNG = DNP = Game goes away !

rcbbuckeye's avatarrcbbuckeye

Really a shame that they took a good game and ruined it by changing the odds to make it harder AND making it a RNG to boot.

A lesson in how NOT to run a lottery game.

Cruzincat

I stopped playing Hot Lotto when the Tipton story broke. 

They should spread out the leftover jackpot money for the last drawing and pay it all out in a paramutual format to everyone that has a winning ticket, based on the current payout structure.  Many people played across state lines to buy Hot Lotto Tickets, including myself.  Taking that money and using it in other future lotteries within the jurisdiction, is not fair to those who paid into it from other states.

If they had just discontinued the RNG and went back to the balls, it would be doing much better in sales.

atoz

Well I question if there is money left in the jackpot the story said it would be dispersed into other lottery products by each state.  To me that dog does not hunt.  I have yet to see and i am not saying it hasnt happened somewhere the state lotteries give it back in some game.  Most of the time it goes into their coffurs and then on to however the state lottery dispenses it whether to their general fund or schools or whatever the case may be.

I have an idea that i would rather see them do than let each state lottery figure out how they will keep it for themselves.  If the jackpot isnt hit then play it on down to lesser hits .......like 5 out of 6....4 out of 6 and on down which in turn would pay out bigger than normal because of the big jackpot not being hit. 

A couple states i play in i never see when a jackpot was hit and the time elapse and it wasnt claimed it alway went back into the lottery.  I have never seen it given back to the players in any way.  The lotteries are set up to give so much to their schools, state general funds or whatever and so much is for the operating the lottery and the balance is the players money to pay out jackpot and lesser hits.  Its the players money. and if i am wrong on my thinking , tell me so.

msharkey2001's avatarmsharkey2001

I used to enjoy playing this game when they had a 5/39 + 1/19 matrix. That would have been pre 2012. Then they changed to the current matrix, more than tripling the odds of a JP win that ended my Hot Lotto playing days, even before the whole Tipton fiasco became publicly known. Hopefully whatever replacement game they come up with will be similar to the old matrix and NON RNG.

Kosh

I have never ever played this game.  Since it was an RNG game, it will not be missed.

 

Buh Bye.

 

 

Kosh

ressuccess's avatarressuccess

I wonder why and how they decided to end Hot Lotto?

JADELottery's avatarJADELottery

In our opinion, we think this was a dry run for a Computerized Powerball.

We saw something similar to this when we lived back in Wisconsin.

Wisconsin introduced Badger 5 and when we wanted to watch the drawing, we found out it was not televised.

Turned out it was Computer Generated Numbers.

It went on for a while, then Wisconsin switched all their games to computers.

Maybe with the Tipton event, they're rethinking this computer generated bug-a-boo, We hope.

Can you imagine the scandal if it was Powerball that was hit by Tipton? O.M.G.!!

But in a way, Powerball does have the Power Play which is computer generated, 2-ché.

thamizhpayan's avatarthamizhpayan

When hot lotto goes off, Iowa will become Grade A state as per report card.

 

Iowa state lottery got a good lesson after rigging got exposed. 

 

When they get rid of RNG draws, more people will play.

 

Good Luck

dallascowboyfan's avatardallascowboyfan

Hopefully Oklahoma comes up with a state lotto jackpot game.

GGStarlings's avatarGGStarlings

Quote: Originally posted by msharkey2001 on Aug 9, 2017

I used to enjoy playing this game when they had a 5/39 + 1/19 matrix. That would have been pre 2012. Then they changed to the current matrix, more than tripling the odds of a JP win that ended my Hot Lotto playing days, even before the whole Tipton fiasco became publicly known. Hopefully whatever replacement game they come up with will be similar to the old matrix and NON RNG.

Same here.  I was a HL fan until the matrix changed.  The very first time I played I got 3 out of 5 with the correct Hot Ball.  Loved that game, way back when.

NeedyNotGreedy

Wasn't hot lotto owned by Powerball?

 

I like Wisconsin's supercash and megabucks game. They give you 2 lines for a dollar. During a visit there, i bought $10 of tickets and won 4 numbers=$30. I was happy that's the most I've won on a draw game, but 4 numbers in Florida's lucky money or another state game would have won me over $500 or even $4,000+ on lucky money. So started to realize the Wisconsin lottery game is poorly paid. Then I realized Wisconsin lottery in General is just bad. I bought 2 $20 tickets and 2 $10 tickets from the same scratch roll and won nothing both times. That's a horrific experience.

 

That said I've played the stupid hot lotto like a fool a few times. That game sucks. They need to dump it. Few winners. I don't think I've won anything on it ever. Their numbers don't draw predictably at all. Mega millions is easier to win a dollar on than hot lotto.

HAMMY WAMMY's avatarHAMMY WAMMY

I have been playing Hot Lotto and Lucky for life pretty regularly the last couple years. I like the odds compared to the big 2. After reading this article I really hope someone wins the jackpot before the game ends. I had a $50 winning $5 scratcher so yesterday I turned it in for 50 Hot lotto tickets, I only won $5. 

Good Luck Everyone :)

DELotteryPlyr's avatarDELotteryPlyr

The wife hit $50 on Friday & then $50 today on scratch offs - so I took $6 to see if I can take down the Jackpot on this game.

Only play this game when I hit on other games (or the wife hits)

End of comments
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