Oklahoma Lottery

The Oklahoma Lottery is an American lottery that is operated by the state's government. The Lottery, which began ticket sales in 2005, is a member of the Multi-State Lottery Association (MUSL).

Players must be 18 or older.

In 2003, the Oklahoma state legislature approved a lottery proposal to go before a vote of the people. Two questions (SQ 705 and SQ 706) were placed on the 2004 general election ballot. Both questions were approved, creating a Lottery Commission and a lottery trust fund.

Originally, Pick 3 and Cash 5 were drawn using traditional drawing machines and numbered balls (which the Lottery purchased from Missouri after the latter switched to computerized drawings. When Oklahoma joined Hot Lotto in 2008, that game had already switched to a random number generator (RNG). On September 20, 2009, Oklahoma changed its two in-house games to RNG drawings. Mega Millions (usually drawn in Georgia) and Powerball (drawn at Universal Orlando Resort in Florida) have always used traditional lottery machines and numbered balls.

Pick 3 and Cash 5 winners must claim prizes within 90 days of the drawing date. Mega Millions, Hot Lotto, and Powerball winners must claim within 180 days of the drawing.

Pick 3, drawn daily, began on November 10, 2005. Players must choose three digits from 0 through 9, either selected by the player, or selected by the lottery terminal ("Easy Pick".)

Oklahoma Cash 5, initially thrice weekly when begun in 2005, has been drawn nightly since July 2009.

Hot Lotto is drawn Wednesday and Saturday evenings. Players must select five "white ball" numbers from 1 through 39, and 1 of 19 orange "hot balls". Jackpots begin at $1 million, increasing by at least $50,000 if there is no top prize winner. Hot Lotto also has an option called Sizzler, which triples non-jackpot prizes.

In 2010, a Hot Lotto ticket purchased near Multi-State Lottery Association (MUSL) headquarters in Iowa won a jackpot. The ticket was not successfully claimed within Iowa's one-year deadline. After a long investigation that included leads in Texas and Canada, then-MUSL Director of Information Security Eddie Tipton was arrested in 2015, eventually sentenced to 10 years in prison for fixing the drawing in question, and purchasing the winning ticket. Several other U.S. lotteries with RNG drawings also have produced winning tickets purchased by Tipton's associates, including a 2011 jackpot-winning Hot Lotto ticket purchased by someone with ties to Tipton.

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