Florida Lottery

When the draws take place

Florida Lotto is drawn twice a week, on Wednesday and Saturday nights at 11:15 PM Eastern Time, with ticket sales closing earlier that evening. Draws are broadcast on television across the state and streamed on the Florida Lottery website.

The other games run on their own schedules. Powerball is drawn Monday, Wednesday and Saturday; Mega Millions on Tuesday and Friday; Jackpot Triple Play on Tuesday and Friday; Cash4Life nightly; Fantasy 5 twice daily; and the Pick games (Pick 2 through Pick 5) twice every day.

How the game works

To play Florida Lotto, you choose 6 numbers from 1 to 53. Each play costs $1. You can pick your own numbers on a playslip or ask for a Quick Pick to have them chosen at random. Match all six numbers to win or share the jackpot, which starts around $1 million and rolls over until it is won. There is no jackpot cap, so it can keep climbing.

Two optional add-ons let you boost a ticket, each for an extra $1 per play:

• XTRA / multiplier: multiplies any non-jackpot prize by up to five times, and turns a 2-number match into a free ticket.
• Double Play: enters your numbers into a second drawing for the chance at additional prizes.

Other popular Florida games include Jackpot Triple Play (three lines of numbers on every ticket), Fantasy 5 (pick 5 from 36, drawn twice daily), the daily Pick numbers games, and the multi-state Powerball and Mega Millions, whose jackpots regularly climb into the hundreds of millions.

Odds and prizes

Florida Lotto’s jackpot odds are 1 in 22,957,480, the shortest odds of any large jackpot game in the state. Lower tiers pay fixed cash amounts, which the XTRA option can multiply.

A 2-number match only wins the free ticket if you added the XTRA option; the base game pays for 3 or more matches. For context, the multi-state games carry far longer odds and far bigger prizes, with Powerball around 1 in 292 million and Mega Millions around 1 in 302 million.

Belopw is the base breakdown per $1 play:

Florida regularly sells some of the largest jackpots in US history. In August 2023, a single ticket sold in Neptune Beach won a $1.58 billion Mega Millions jackpot, the largest Mega Millions prize on record. In January 2016, one of the three winning tickets in the record $1.586 billion Powerball drawing was sold in Melbourne Beach, Florida.

The state’s own Florida Lotto game regularly produces jackpots above $20 million that climb well into the tens of millions. One unusual case came in 2017, when a player in Panama won a $30 million Florida Lotto prize after a ticket-buying concierge service purchased official tickets for her in Florida, showing that a winning Florida ticket can end up in the hands of someone far outside the state.

Florida voters approved a state lottery in November 1986 through a constitutional amendment, on the promise that it would raise money for education. The first tickets, a $1 scratch-off called Millionaire, went on sale in January 1988. The Lottery was an immediate success, repaying its start-up funding within its first few weeks of operation.

Florida Lotto began as a 6-from-49 game and moved to its current 6-from-53 format in 1999. Florida joined Powerball in 2009, and in fact became the home base for the Powerball drawing, and added Mega Millions in 2013. The Lottery is run as a state agency from its headquarters in Tallahassee.

You buy Florida Lottery tickets in person:

In-store: from more than 13,000 authorized retailers across Florida, including supermarkets, convenience stores and gas stations. Publix is the single largest seller. Fill out a playslip or ask for a Quick Pick.

No online or mail sales: the Florida Lottery does not sell tickets online, by mail or by subscription. Tickets must be bought from a retailer inside the state.

You must be 18 or older to play. There is no residency requirement to win, but you do have to buy your ticket in Florida.

How to claim a prize

How you claim depends on the amount:

• Up to $599: collect from any authorized Florida Lottery retailer or a district office.
• $600 to $1,000,000: claim at a Florida Lottery district office, or by mail for prizes of $250,000 or less.
• Over $1,000,000 and any annual-payment prize: claim at Florida Lottery headquarters in Tallahassee.

Sign the back of your ticket as soon as you buy it, since it is a bearer instrument. Draw-game prizes must be claimed within 180 days of the drawing. Jackpot winners who want the cash lump sum instead of the 30-year annuity must choose it within 60 days. Unclaimed prize money goes back to education and the prize pool.

Taxes on winnings

Florida is one of the most tax-friendly states for lottery players: there is no state income tax, so no state tax is withheld or owed on winnings. What you keep is affected only by federal tax.

Federal tax still applies. The Lottery reports winnings of $2,000 or more to the IRS. For prizes over $5,000, federal tax is withheld up front at 24% if you provide a valid Social Security number, or 30% if you do not. The final federal bill can be higher, up to the top federal rate, depending on your total income, so it is worth consulting a tax professional for a large win.

Can you stay anonymous?

Partly, and only for a limited time. Under a law that took effect on 25 May 2022, winners of prizes of $250,000 or more can keep their name confidential for 90 days from the date the prize is claimed. After that 90-day window, the name becomes public unless the winner has waived the exemption sooner.

Everything else is public record from the start, including the winner’s city of residence, the game won, the date and amount won, and the name and location of the retailer that sold the ticket. For prizes under $250,000, the winner’s name is also public. In short, Florida offers a short privacy window on big wins rather than permanent anonymity.