The Ohio Lottery Commission was formed back in May 1973 has since run some of the most successful and widely played USA lottery games.
Tickets for the OH Lottery’s first game, Buckeye 300, went on sale in August 1974.
Since the beginning in 1974, this State Lottery Commission has produced in excess of $15.5 billion towards public education. In fact, each year, approximately 4.5% of funding required for primary and secondary public education is provided for by the lottery.
The Ohio Lottery aims to help educate the children resident in the state with the help of its games and aspires to be the most well respected US lottery for this support of education, its integrity and entertainment value.
These days the Ohio Lottery has a vast array of lottery games, both instant games and online lotteries to play including Instant Games (scratch offs), Pick 3, Pick 4, Ten-Oh, Rolling Cash 5, The Kicker, EZ Play Games, Keno, Mega Millions and the main lottery game we will be reviewing here…Classic Lotto.
Classic Lotto Overview
The Classic Lotto is one of many different games that the Ohio Lottery Commission has to offer and is their primary lottery game – it is another lottery that we have been pleased to review are happy to recommend as one that we see as very much worth playing in.
Classic Lotto is a revived version of Super Lotto and the first Classic Lotto draw took place in January 2007.
It is a traditional lotto-style game using a 6/49 matrix.
The Classic Lotto draws take place three times per week on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays at 7.29pm local time.
The jackpot starts at $1 million and increases by “rolling over” each week that it is not won. It increases by at least $100,000 each draw but increases further based on the level of sales.
How It Works…
When playing the Ohio Classic Lotto, you need to select 6 numbers from a pool of balls numbered 1 to 49 – if you match all 6 numbers drawn you are a jackpot winner.
There are other cash prizes to be won if you match either 5 of the numbers drawn, 4 numbers or even just 3.
An Auto Pick facility is available when playing the Classic Lotto similar to the “Lucky Dip” that is used in the UK National Lottery or Europe’s Euromillions – whereby you can get the computer terminal to select all your 6 numbers for you.
The cost of playing the Ohio Lotto – Classic Lotto is $1.00 per entry.
Who Can Play?
As with most lotteries in the U.S.A., in the past, only citizens living in the State of Ohio were allowed to play in any of the Ohio games including Classic Lotto and tickets had to be purchased from an authorized lottery ticket retailer based in Ohio.
Now, however, with the welcome presence of authentic online lottery ticket sales agencies like TheLotter you are able to pick your Classic Lotto numbers online and purchase your tickets and it doesn’t matter where in the world you are living.
This is good news if you live outside of Ohio and the U.S.A. but wish to play the Classic Lotto and guarantee your entry into the next draw or just simply want to enjoy the convenience of being able to buy lottery tickets online.
Once you have entered into the Classic Lotto, you are then easily able to check the Ohio Lottery results online to see how you have done and to find out if you have become one of the lucky lottery winners.
You must be 18 years of age to be eligible to purchase a ticket for any of the Ohio Lottery games including Classic lotto.
Some great news here for all USA Lottery players in Ohio...
The Mega Millions consortium – who administer the MEGA MILLIONS game – and the Multi-State Lottery Association (MUSL) – who administer the POWERBALL game – have entered into an historic cross-sales agreement across the USA. All US Lotteries that previously sold MEGA MILLIONS tickets can now ALSO sell POWERBALL tickets.
This means that with effect from January 31st 2010 – in addition to the existing MEGA MILLIONS – USA Lottery players in Ohio will now ALSO be able to buy lottery tickets for the POWERBALL. You can still buy lottery tickets online, of course, from anywhere around the world.
The first incarnation of today’s Classic Lotto was Super Lotto which changed to Lot O’Play in 2005. Lot O’Play was the first game of its kind in the US with 12 different ways to win.
In 2007 Ohio Lottery changed this again by bringing back the Super Lotto type game and called it Classic Lotto. January of that year saw the first Classic Lotto draw take place.
A record $723 million was given to the Lottery Profits Education Fund by the Ohio Lottery in 1998.
It’s interesting to note that on average, out of everyone who plays Ohio Lotto games, they spend $193 a year each playing as of 2007.
The Ohio Lottery proudly sits in 9th place in America in the USA Lotteries rankings table – meaning that it has 9th highest total gross sales as of 2007.
If you win any amount up to $599 on the Ohio Lottery Classic Lotto, you can collect your winnings from any retailer location immediately in cash.
For winnings between $600 and $5,000, again go to any retailer where you will be handed a “Pay To Bearer” ticket. The retailer will give you a claim form which you can take to a local bank and collect your winnings on presentation of the claim form.
If your winnings are more than $5,000, you will need to contact your nearest Ohio Lotto Regional Office and arrange to file your claim in person.
Of the three weekly Classic Lotto drawings, you are able to watch the Saturday draw unfold and see the Ohio Lottery results on the Make Me Famous, Make Me Rich~Y Television show on Saturday evenings.
What Are The Odds?
The chances of winning a Classic Lotto jackpot are not really too bad as far as jackpot odds go – for odds of 1 in 13.98 million, you could be one of the Classic Lotto jackpot winners.
For one of the prizes on the second level you at looking at odds of 1 in 54.2 thousand.
The likelihood of winning a third tier prize comes in at 1 in 1032 and for a prize on the fourth tier, the odds come down to just 1 in 57.
The overall odds of you winning any prize in the Ohio Classic Lotto are a very reasonable 1 in 54.
Record Jackpots…
The largest jackpot won by a Classic Lotto player has been $24.6 million, which occurred on July 2nd 2008.
The average jackpot paid out by Ohio’s Classic Lotto is $7.8 million.
How Are Jackpots Paid?
As an Ohio Lottery Classic Lotto jackpot winner, you would have a choice in how you are able to receive your winnings. You could choose to have either a single cash lump sum payment or an annuity prize.
Should you win the lottery jackpot with Classic Lotto and choose to receive an annuity as opposed to a lump sum, the winnings would be paid to you in 30 annual installment payments over a 30 year period.
In terms of value, if you chose to take the cash lump sum payment as a Classic Lotto jackpot winner, you would receive 50% of the annuity value that you would be paid in installments over the 30 year period.
The rules with any of the Ohio Lottery games mean that you need to claim your prize within 180 days of the draw taking place.
If choosing to receive the cash lump sum option instead of the annuity payments for a jackpot win, you need to exercise this option within 60 days of making your claim for the win otherwise the method of payment will automatically default to the annual instalment payments “annuity” option.
If you play lottery online however, whatever your win, this will not be a concern for you, as your accredited lottery ticket sales agency will take care of all this for you, whether it is TheLotter or whichever company you may use.