Lottery In Texas

The Texas lottery went live on May 29, 1992, when they launched the first scratch-off ticket. They would break the world record for the most sales on a lottery release day with 23.2 million tickets sold in 24 hours. Since then billions in revenues have been earned to help the education system in the state as well as scratch-offs that help give funds to Texas Veterans.

Legal Lottery Options in Texas

With Texas having one of the largest populations in the whole of the United States, second only to California, it’s no surprise there are plenty of places to buy tickets. In fact, Texas has around 20,000 lottery retailers within its state lines.

Below we take a look at all the draw games you can play from Texas.

Texas Multi-State Games

These games came to Texas in early 2010 after the state joined up with the Multi-State Lottery Association (MUSL) in October 2009. Since then you have been able to enjoy these huge jackpot games from Texas, with prize pools that reach the billions.

US Powerball

The first Powerball to be allowed in Texas was in February 2010, with over $1.3 million in ticket sales for the opening draw sold. This is a huge country-wide game that offers jackpots that are regularly into the hundreds of millions.

Tickets are on sale for $2 across Texas, with the option to add the PowerPlay for an extra $1, this is a radon multiplier that will allow you to increase any non-jackpot winnings. Draws are pretty regular, with new winners announced every Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday night.

Mega Millions

Tickets for this huge multi-state game first went on sale in Texas in December 2003. Since then the state has enjoyed the ability to win massive prizes in the record-breaking draw that made a single winner from South Carolina an overnight billionaire when they were the sole winner of a $1.537 billion jackpot in October 2018.

You can get your tickets all across Texas for $2, with the option of playing the Megaplier which is a random multiplier of any non-jackpot winnings for an extra $1. Draws are held every Tuesday and Friday evening.

Texas Exclusive Lottery Games

There are plenty of great in-state games available for Texans with plenty of games that pay out some big numbers and two games that have made the state plenty of millionaires. Whilst these games might not have quite the same appeal as the insane prizes in the multi-state games, they still pack a hefty punch to any bank account and come with much better odds of winning.

Lotto Texas

Texas Two Step

This game creates the most jackpot winners in Texas each year. With a jackpot that starts at $200,000 that quickly rolls over, turning into millions of dollars. Draws are every Monday and Thursday and you can play for just $1

Pick 3 & Daily 4

These games are held four times a day, there are morning, midday, evening, and nighttime draws. Tickets start at $0.50 and you can play for more cash which will give you a better chance to win prizes. There’s also the Fireball feature with both these games where you can get even more chances to win with the Fireball opening up new winning combinations.

Cash Five

This Texas game gives you a chance to win up to $25,000 for the price of a $1 ticket. Draws are held from Monday through to Saturday in the evening. This is one of the best odds of winning some worthwhile cash, with odds of winning a prize being 1 in 7.2 and odds of the jackpot being 1 in 324,632.

All Or Nothing

This is a crazy game format that’s unique in the way that you can win the jackpot without matching a single number or by matching all of them. You’ll have to pick 12 numbers and 24 are drawn four times a day, each day.

Prizes are paid out up to $250,000 and you’ll have an overall chance of return of 1 in 4.5 in this game.

Additional Games

There are also plenty of scratch tickets available in the state of Texas. Prices range from $1 to $50 and you can win up to $3 million with some of the more expensive tickets on sale.

In Texas, you can also buy tickets that support Texas Veterans, with non-profit tickets sold for the Texas Veterans Commission’s Fund for Veterans’ Assistance.

Texas State Lottery History

• August 1991 – House Bill 54 is passed, allowing the creation of a lottery in Texas.
• March 1992 – GTECH are awarded the lottery contract to handle the warehousing and distribution of tickets.
• May 1992 – The Texas Lottery is launched on May 29th ahead of schedule. Texans buy over 23 million tickets, smashing the world record for first-day sales.
• May 1993 – The Texas Lottery Commission is created when House Bill 1587 is signed into law.
• August 1999 – Louis C. Lopez of Midland wins a $10 million jackpot on the Lotto Texas game.
• October 2009 – The state joins forces with the Multi-State Lottery Association (MUSL) and begins to sell Powerball and Mega Millions tickets.

What Does the Texas State Lottery Fund?

Since the lottery was legalized in 1992, Texas has managed to generate over $33 billion in revenues for the state, including raising funds for education programs, veteran services, and other important programs. The state has given over $27 billion to the Texas Foundation School Fund, as well as raising $166 million for the Texas Veterans Commission Fund for Veterans’ Assistance (FVA) with the sale of scratch tickets that were launched in 2010. The Texas Lottery also gives any unclaimed prizes to other worthy causes within the state.

Where Can You Play the Lottery in Texas?

Currently, you can only play lottery games in the various stores across the state of Texas. Whilst the online side of things has plenty of great features including being able to enter second-chance prize pools with any non-winning tickets, you can’t actually buy any lottery game tickets online right now in Texas.

Ciaran McEneaney

Ciaran has been working within the Gambling Industry as a deep analyst since 2019. His deep knowledge and understanding of all the gambling regulations, and processes makes him a true asset, and an always valuable point of view for Gambling Industry News, allowing us to cover every topics from a brand new perspective.