Lottery launching new Arkansas-only numbers game

Tickets for the Natural State Jackpot will be $1, and a player will have to match all five numbers to claim a jackpot.

Associated Press

The Arkansas lottery is launching a new numbers game on Monday, one that will feature drawings six nights per week and be offered only within the state.

Tickets for the Natural State Jackpot will be $1, and a player will have to match all five numbers to claim a jackpot.

Lottery officials say they expect winning jackpots to average more than $150,000.

The game will be similar to Powerball and Mega Millions, though those games are played across dozens of states.

Lottery Director Bishop Woosley has been working to increase profit margins for the lottery as a way to send more money into the fund for college scholarships. Proportionally, Arkansas sells more scratch tickets than any other state and those tickets have much narrower profit margins than numbers games.

Since the lottery launched in 2009, one Arkansas resident has won a top Powerball jackpot and no one in the state has won the top Mega Millions prize.

Players taking a chance on the Natural State Jackpot will have a one in 576,000 chance of winning, much shorter odds than the one in 176 million faced by Powerball and Mega Millions players.

Woosley said the Arkansas-only game is expected to draw players willing to take a chance on better odds, even though the jackpots won't venture into the range of the bigger games.

"We will have Arkansas winners regularly, they will win a large sum of money, and they will be buying those tickets right here at home in Arkansas," Woosley said.

Players will choose five numbers, 1 through 39, or have them selected randomly at the lottery terminal.

The game will include lower-tier prizes. Players matching four numbers will win $300; three numbers, $7; and two numbers, $1, essentially a refund of the ticket price.

If more than one person has numbers matching the jackpot, the prize will be divided equally.

Drawings will be held at 8 p.m. at lottery headquarters, Monday through Saturday. The drawing will be overseen by auditors.

The jackpot will start at $25,000 and increase by $5,000 each night there is no winner. Once someone wins the jackpot, the prize drops back to $25,000.