Connecticut Lottery
Connecticut Lottery Corporation logo
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| Formation | 1971 |
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| Type | Lottery System |
| Headquarters | Rocky Hill, Connecticut, United States |
| Website | www |
The Connecticut Lottery Corporation, also called the CT Lottery, is the official lottery in Connecticut. It was created in 1971 by then-Gov. Thomas Meskill, who signed Public Act No. 865. The first tickets were sold on February 15, 1972. The Connecticut Lottery offers several in-house drawing games; Connecticut also participates in Mega Millions and Powerball; each are played in 44 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Drawings are broadcast on WCCT-TV (channel 20) the CW affiliate in the Hartford/New Haven television market.
A three-digit numbers game-style game drawn twice daily, with day and night drawings. Tickets can be bought in 50-cent multiples. Bets include straight (all three digits in order), box (all three digits in any order) and pairs (any two digits).
A four-digit numbers game similar to Play3.
Cash5 is a nightly five-number game. Five winning numbers are chosen from a field of 35. The basic Cash5 game costs $1; for an additional 50 cents, the Kicker option is activated. The Kicker option gives a player more opportunities to win.
Connecticut's in-house jackpot game, Lotto!, is drawn Tuesdays and Friday nights. Six numbers are drawn from a field of 44; the 6/44 matrix has been used continuously since 1989, when the game's name was its original name, Connecticut Lotto (without an exclamation point.)
The minimum jackpot is $1,000,000 (annuitized; payable in 21 equal yearly installments unless the cash option is chosen.) Unusually, the Lotto! jackpot increases only when its Tuesday night drawing is not won. The minimum increase in the jackpot is $100,000 until won. Players win $2 by matching three of the six numbers drawn; a parimutuel prize is won with at least four numbers.
What is now Lotto! began in 1983 as Connecticut Lotto, a 6/36 game. The matrix was changed to 6/40 in 1986, and to the current 6/44 in 1989. (The then-current game logo was 36, 40, or 44 yellow squares forming a rectangle, reflecting the game matrix.) The cash option was added in 1997. The game became Wild Card Lotto in 1998 (adding a seventh ball, which was used for additional lower-tier prizes, but not for the jackpot). Due to slumping sales, Wild Card Lotto was dropped and Classic Lotto introduced Memorial Day weekend in 1999.
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