New York Lottery

New York Lotto is drawn twice a week, on Wednesday and Saturday nights. Ticket sales close at 8:00pm ET on draw days, and the winning numbers are drawn from about 8:15pm ET. Draws are broadcast on television stations across the state and streamed online.

The Lottery’s other games run on their own schedules: Numbers and Win 4 are drawn twice daily; Take 5 twice daily; Pick 10 nightly; Cash4Life nightly; Powerball on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday; and Mega Millions on Tuesday and Friday.

How the game works

To play New York Lotto, you choose 6 numbers from 1 to 59. The minimum purchase is $1, which buys two games (two sets of six numbers). You can pick your own numbers on a playslip or ask for a Quick Pick to have them randomly generated.

On draw night, six main numbers are drawn, followed by a seventh Bonus number from the remaining 53 balls. You don’t choose the Bonus number as it’s drawn automatically and only matters for the second prize tier (5 numbers + Bonus). Match all six main numbers and you win the jackpot; there are five prize tiers in total. You can enter the same numbers for up to 26 consecutive draws.

Other popular New York games include:

• Numbers & Win 4 — daily 3-digit and 4-digit games, twice a day.
• Take 5 — pick 5 from 39, drawn twice daily, with a rolldown top prize.
• Cash4Life — a regional game with a top prize of $1,000 a day for life.
• Powerball & Mega Millions — multi-state games with jackpots that regularly climb past $100 million.

Odds and prizes

New York Lotto’s jackpot starts at $2 million and rolls over until it’s won, with no cap. By law, 40% of Lotto sales go into the prize fund, and 75% of that fund is set aside for the jackpot. The jackpot and several lower tiers are parimutuel, meaning they’re shared among winners rather than fixed. Here’s how the tiers and odds break down for New York Lotto:

The largest jackpot ever won on a ticket sold in New York was a $476 million Mega Millions prize from the 14 April 2023 draw. The winning ticket was bought at a convenience store in Queens by Johnnie Taylor, a 71-year-old from Howard Beach, who chose the cash option (a lump sum of about $157 million before taxes).

For the home-grown New York Lotto game specifically, the biggest prize was a $90 million jackpot in January 1991, shared among nine ticket holders. The largest single New York Lotto win was a $65 million jackpot claimed by one player in Sunnyside, New York, in June 2007.

New Yorkers voted to approve a state-run lottery in a 1966 referendum, with the proceeds constitutionally dedicated to education. The New York Lottery began in 1967 with the slogan “Your Chance of a Lifetime to Help Education.” The flagship Lotto draw game launched in 1978.

Over the decades the Lottery expanded into daily numbers games, scratch-off tickets, video lottery terminals, and the big multi-state jackpots, joining Mega Millions in 2002 and Powerball in 2010. In 2013 the Lottery’s operations merged into the newly formed New York State Gaming Commission, which oversees it today from its base in Schenectady.

You can buy New York Lottery tickets two main ways:

• In-store — from thousands of licensed retailers across the state, including convenience stores, delis, newsstands and supermarkets. Fill out a playslip or ask for a Quick Pick.
• Online & app — New York offers online subscriptions and a mobile app for certain draw games; you must be physically located in New York State to play.

You must be at least 18 years old to play New York Lottery games (21 for Quick Draw keno where alcohol is served).

How you claim depends on the amount:

• Up to $600: collect in cash at any New York Lottery retailer.
• $601 to $5,000: claim at participating retailers, a Lottery Customer Service Center, or by mail with a claim form.
• Over $5,000 (including jackpots): complete a claim form and submit it — usually in person at a Lottery office — with your signed ticket and photo ID. Jackpot winners can typically choose between an annuity and a reduced cash lump sum.

Keep your ticket safe and sign the back. New York prizes must generally be claimed within one year of the draw date.

Taxes on winnings

This is where New York differs sharply from Australia and the UK: lottery winnings are taxable. Prizes over $5,000 have taxes withheld up front: 24% federal withholding plus New York State withholding at the top rate of around 10.9%. Residents of New York City or Yonkers also owe local income tax (roughly an extra 3.9% in NYC), which can be withheld too.

In practice that means a large New York jackpot can lose well over a third of its value to combined federal, state and city taxes before it reaches the winner, and the final bill is settled when the winner files their tax return. Because tax situations vary, big winners should consult a licensed tax professional or financial adviser.

Can you stay anonymous?

Traditionally, no. New York has been one of the states that publicly identify lottery winners. Under state Freedom of Information rules, a winner’s name, city or town of residence, and prize amount have generally been treated as public record, which is why winners like Johnnie Taylor are named and photographed by the Lottery itself. Some winners have used a trust or an LLC (for example, a “lottery club”) to claim a prize while keeping individual names out of the spotlight.

Important: New York has moved toward allowing winners of larger prizes to request confidentiality, with reforms discussed and phased in during 2025-2026. Because the rules are genuinely in flux, verify the current anonymity policy directly with the New York Lottery before relying on it.