Natural State Jackpot starts today

Starting today, there’s a new way to win big with the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery. The Natural State Jackpot tickets will go on sale at 12:01 a.m. on Monday, August 27. The Arkansas-only jackpot game was planned in response to player request—with dozens of calls to Lottery headquarters asking for a lotto-style game exclusive to Arkansas players. Lottery officials estimate the average jackpot will be more than $150,000.

Here’s how it works: Natural State Jackpot tickets cost $1. Players pick (or have the computer pick for them) five numbers between 1 and 39. At 8 p.m. every night except Sunday, a secure random drawing, supervised by auditors, is held at Lottery Headquarters to choose the five winning numbers. The jackpot kicks off at $25,000, increasing by $5000 every night until there is a winner. Then, the jackpot resets to $25,000, and the game goes on.

The Natural State Jackpot also has lower-tier prizes. Four matching numbers pay $300, three at $7 and if you get two numbers right, you get you $1 purchase price returned. If more than one player matches the jackpot numbers, the jackpot is divided evenly between them. As with other games, the retailer selling the winning jackpot ticket will receive a selling bonus of 1% of the prize.

For those who play Powerball or Mega Millions, with odds of 1/176,000,000, the Natural State Jackpot is very similar but with much better odds of only 1/575,757.

“For Arkansas players, the Natural State Jackpot really is a dollar for a dream,” said Bishop Woosley, Lottery Director. “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.”

This past year, the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery produced $97.5 Million for scholarships, currently being awarded to Arkansas students enrolled in Arkansas colleges and universities. Net proceeds from games such as the Natural State Jackpot go directly and exclusively to fund these scholarships.