West Virginia Lottery

November 1984 was the year the West Virginia (WV) Lottery was founded. The West Virginia government is the sole owner and operator of the WV Lottery. At first WV Lottery issues only scratch cards but gradually lottery base games were issued. As a member in the Multi-State Lottery Association (MUSL), it offers games such as Ca$hola (Video Lottery game), Powerball, Hot Lotto and a variety of scratch cards. The WV Lottery is mainly known for producing one of the biggest winners, Jack Whittaker, who won the Powerball draw for 5 Million in 2002.

Games

Hot Lotto is one of the MUSL games offered also in West Virginia (there 11 states where the game is offered). The game was recently updated and the hot Sizzler option allows a player to triple all of his prizes but the jackpot. The Jackpot offered starts with million and can easily grow with rolled over jackpots. The game is played by choosing 5 numbers ranging from 1 to 39 and a sixth number designated as the Hot Ball ranging from 1 to 19. Each set of 6 numbers has a fee but players may add the Hot Sizzler for an additional fee of . The Sizzler will triple any prize won by the ticket except for the first place prize.

Pick 3 is a daily game with draws twice per day. It is an easy game with good probabilities to win a prize. There are various ways to play the game and the winning sum always depends on the sum invested. The tickets fee ranges from 50 cents to . To play the game the player simply chooses a 3-digit number or lets the Quick Pick machine choose the numbers for him. Once a number is chosen the playing method must be selected, weather it is the easy way or the hard way. If the player selects to play for the exact order, then for each invested the player will be paid 0. If the player selects the option of any order his paid bet will be at to invested or 0 to . If all digits match with no particular order then the player wins the but if there is a pair of digits that matches the drawn number the sum won by the wager increases to 0.

Selecting to play the hard way the player may play Straight/Box or Pick 3 Pairs. If the player selects the option of playing Straight/Box then he wins weather the 3 digits match the drawn digits in order or regardless of the order. Pick 3 Pairs has a maximum winning prize of for each wagered. Here the player pick a pair of digits and their position in the 3-digit number. The players will only if he matched correctly the digits and their position.

The daily 4 plays Monday to Saturday and is much like the Pick 3 game. In Pick 4 however the number picked is a 4-digit number. Also here the player must choose among 3 available betting options, Straight, Box or Straight/Box. The payout for a Straight game is ,000 for a bet. The player wins if all digits are guessed and in the drawn order.

The payout for the Box option varies between the 4 possible versions and starts with 0 for and reaches ,200 for a . The winning options are: 4-way box, if 3 identical digits are chosen (for example 4,5,5,5) there are 4 ways to win if the order is disregarded. 6-way box, if 2 sets of identical digits are chosen (for example 3,3,5,5) there are 6 ways to win if the order is disregarded. 12-way box, if 2 identical digits are chosen (for example 3,4,5,5) there are 12 ways to win if the order is disregarded. 24-way box, if no identical digits are chosen (for example 3,4,5,6) there are 24 ways to win if the order is disregarded.

The payout for the Straight/Box option varies between the 4 possible versions and starts with 0 for and reaches ,100 for a . The player has the option to match straight or box and the payout is made according to the result, wether the digits are in order or not. The winning options are: 4-way Straight/box, if 3 identical digits are chosen (for example 4,5,5,5) there are 4 possible results. 6-way Straight/box, if 2 sets of identical digits are chosen (for example 3,3,5,5) there are 6 possible results. 12-way Straight/box, if 2 identical digits are chosen (for example 3,4,5,5) there are 12 possible results. 24-way Straight/box, if no identical digits are chosen (for example 3,4,5,6) there are 4 possible results.