Name
Operator
Type
Country
Website
Founded
Lottorating

Hot Lotto
Offered by individual US state operators
Multi-state lottery
US
powerball.com
2002
24/50

Introduction

Overview

This is one of the smaller multi-state lotteries in the US. Average jackpots aren't the biggest around but they are a bit easier to hit. The best thing about this little lottery is that you get 'what it says on the tin'. All taxes are paid already both federal and state and the advertised amount is the cash (not annuity) option.

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Where Available

It is available across 15 states or localities and there are some international lottery companies that offer a concierge or betting service for this lottery too.

Date and time of draws

There are two draws of Hot Lotto each week on a Wednesday and Saturday at 10pm CT.

No. of balls and how to hit the jackpot

There are 47 main and 19 bonus balls to choose from and you need just 5 main and 1 bonus ball to hit the jackpot.

Other Variations

The 'sizzler' option is available in most of the states that offer Hot Lotto and costs an extra $1. It trebles all prizes except the jackpot. Around 13% of all Hot Lotto players choose the sizzler option which overall gives a slightly higher return to player (RTP) than the same game without. So, unless the jackpot is around $20m, when two single tickets would be better than one with the sizzler, go for the sizzler!

Ticket Price

At $1, this is a nice affordable lottery to play and the $2 version with the sizzler is reasonable value.

Tickets Sold Per Draw

Hot Lotto is a small multistate lottery and in fact, the total tickets sold per draw of around 1m is similar to the size of the lottery for a single state in the US.

Sales per draw

As it only costs $1, sales volume per draw is quite small too at $1m.

Minimum jackpot

Hot Lotto is seeded with $1m and grows around 300k per week until hit.

Average jackpot

The average jackpot you can expect to see advertised is around $3m and it's average when hit is around $5.5m.

Average jackpot when hit

A comparison of jackpots is shown in the graphic here.

Highest jackpot ever

The best ever jackpot on Hot Lotto was won in 2007 and worth $20m.

Jackpot winners per year

You can expect to see the Hot Lotto jackpot being won every three months or so and usually by just the one ticket.

Contribution to the jackpot

Only about 16c of every ticket goes towards the big pot, much less than the likes of Megamillions or Powerball, for example. This is another reason that the jackpot doesn't grow too big or too fast.

Introduction

Returns to players in the form of prizes aren't too generous on the Hot Lotto.

RTP when first seeded

The jackpot for Hot Lotto starts at $1m but grows quite slowly. If you were to hit the jackpot in the first few weeks after it has been reset, your 'value' as they say, isn't that great around at around 23c on the dollar. This means, for example, that if you spent $29m buying every single ticket combination when the jackpot was at its minimum, you'd end up with about $8m left in your pocket :-(.

Average RTP

If you're playing on subscription and chancing your luck against big and small jackpots then your RTP improves to 35c. As mentioned earlier, you're better off paying a bit more and taking the sizzler option but in this example, your RTP would only rise to about 0.42.

RTP when jackpot typically hit

And when the average jackpot for Hot Lotto is hit, you're still facing a high 'takeout' by the lottery companies as your RTP is still only 0.44. This makes Hot Lotto one of the worst lotteries we have looked at in terms of how much is skimmed off your stakes and it probably explains why it's so small for a multi-state lottery.

Best RTP

If Hot Lotto's jackpot were ever to get to around $25m it would get 'interesting' in RTP terms! Note that the highest jackpot has been $20m to date. The big advantage on the Hot Lotto is that an advertised $25m really would be worth $25m, as there is no reduction for taking cash nor any taxes payable by the winners.

Annuity vs Cash

There used to be an annuity option for the Hot Lotto jackpot but as most customers tended to take the cash this was discontinued and the advertised jackpot figure is now the real cash amount. Better still, it's also net of taxes which are paid by the state offering Hot Lotto. These differences set it apart from most other lotteries in the US.

Jackpot alerts

This is, and will probably remain, a small lottery. It doesn't offer whopping jackpots and the second prize tier isn't too generous either! Add to this the fact that the RTP is one of the lowest means that, all told, I'd probably not bother with Hot Lotto - given a choice, I'd sooner spend $1 on the Megamillions!

Pros

The advertised jackpot is the net cash figure that players receive and there's no tax payable either!

Cons

Jackpots are small, the second prize is also pretty poor, and (in keeping with this) overall RTPs aren't great.

Verdict

If you like Hot Lotto then do play with the sizzler when you can as it's a better option than without. For value, Hot Lotto is probably worth looking at if the jackpot gets to $25m, which is a little higher than its maximum in the last few years, so you might have to wait a bit!

To play this or other lottos online, try our preferred agents page.