Starting Monday, there's a new way to win big
with the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery.
The Natural State 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.
