Illinois Lottery Updates Lotto Beginning July 14

CHICAGO, July 11, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- With multistate lottery games like Powerball and Mega Millions offering jackpots in excess of $100 million every other month, the Illinois Lottery has revamped one of its original games, Lotto, in order to give lottery players a chance at potentially bigger jackpots and better overall odds.

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Starting Sunday, July 14, 2013, Lotto will cost $1 for each game-set, enabling larger jackpots and the drawings will take place on Monday, Thursday and Saturday evenings – the Wednesday draw date now moves to Thursday. Additionally, Lotto's prize table will award new prizes and larger average prizes per category and will offer an additional match-2 prize level.  Click here for FAQs and game-play information.

Lotto has evolved in recent years, as have other Lottery draw-based games.  In October 2012, the popular Extra Shot feature, which offers players six more ways to win for just $1 more, was introduced and remains an optional purchase on every Lotto ticket.

The game-play for Lotto will not change. Players still choose six numbers from 1 – 52 from a new easy-to-fill-out play slip (or opt for computer-selected quick pick numbers).  The winning numbers will be displayed on the Illinois Lottery website (www.illinoislottery.com) and the drawings will continue to take place at 9:22 p.m. CDT and will be broadcast live on WGN TV. Overall odds of winning a Lotto prize are now 1-in-7.36 for base Lotto (compared with the previous 1-in-32) and 1-in-5.68 (previously 1-in-9) for Lotto with Extra Shot.

Lotto is one of the Lottery's first multimillion-dollar draw games and was introduced in February 1983. After 3,008 draws and more than $9 billion in sales, Lotto has created more Lottery millionaires than all other Illinois Lottery games combined.

About Illinois Lottery
Founded in 1974, the Illinois Lottery has contributed $17.5 billion to the state Common School Fund to assist K-12 public schools, as well as the Capital Projects Fund. Players must be at least 18 years old.

Contact: Chanele Newton 312-368-5814

SOURCE Illinois Lottery