Draw-Style Games

No. State law prevents the sale of Louisiana Lottery products through the internet. Only licensed retailers are legally authorized to sell Louisiana Lottery tickets.

Yes! The Multidraw features on draw-style games allows players to purchase plays for multiple drawings, up to 14 for Pick 3, Pick 4 and Pick 5, and up to 20 for Powerball, Mega Millions, Lotto, and Easy 5. If you win a prize during one of the drawings, you do not have to wait until the last drawing has occurred before collecting those winnings. When you cash a winning Multidraw ticket with drawings still remaining, the Lottery's terminal system will print out an exchange ticket good for the balance of the remaining drawings and with the same numbers as on your original ticket. The retailer will retain the original ticket as it is no longer valid and give your exchange ticket with your winnings.

Visit our Claim a Prize page to see the claims options we have available.

Winning scratch-off or fast play tickets can be claimed up to 90 days following the closure of the game. Check out our list of expired games and end-of-redemption dates to see a game's current status.

Players should sign the back of their ticket for security purposes, secure their ticket, and treat it as cash. We also recommend that players who believe they hold a Powerball, Mega Millions, or Lotto jackpot-winning ticket contact the Lottery's headquarters immediately at 225-297-2000 to schedule a time to claim their prize and have their questions answered. This will facilitate a smooth prize payment process. Players who believe they hold a jackpot-winning ticket must bring the original ticket to the Lottery's corporate headquarters in Baton Rouge within 180 days of the drawing in which the prize was won for verification and any prize payment. The Lottery recommends that before coming to claim a jackpot prize, winners get financial advice so they fully understand the tax or other legal implications involved.

Drawings are conducted at Lottery headquarters in downtown Baton Rouge using one of two secure, automated drawing machines. The machines are completely separate from the system that generates tickets, so the number of winners or where the winning tickets were sold is not known until after the drawing has occurred. To maximize security, access to the drawing room and equipment are reliant upon a dual key or password system from both a Lottery drawing official and a legislative auditor.

Prior to each drawing, a machine is randomly selected. The chosen drawing system utilizes several encryption algorithms to ensure randomness and security of the data, which is tested continuously. Finally, the system selects the winning numbers based on the game matrix parameters from the tested and secure raw data, displays them on the animated display console and writes them to a log file. The official results are then printed and signed off on by both the Lottery drawing official and the legislative auditor overseeing the drawing.

After drawings are conducted, the official winning numbers generated by the system are transmitted to Louisiana Public Broadcasting, WLPB, for satellite relay to all Official Lottery Draw Show TV Stations and are sent to state news media. The Lottery also posts the winning numbers on its website following the drawings each night after winning data is verified.

All of the Lottery's games are games of chance. Drawing games are conducted using random number generation. This means that every number combination has an EQUAL chance of being selected for every drawing, REGARDLESS of whether or not it was drawn in the past. If number combinations that had been drawn in the past were removed from play, the game would be unfair. Even assuming that number combinations could be eliminated, it would take 1,000 drawings, or 2.8 years, for every possible Pick 3 combination to be drawn. For Pick 4, it would take 10,000 drawings or 28 years. For Pick 5, it would take 100,000 drawings or about 274 years.

Check out our Where to Watch page for a list of stations and air times.

Live drawings were discontinued for draw-style games in 1998, ahead of an industry trend toward automated drawings. There were several factors that contributed to the decision to convert to the automated drawing process now being used; producing live drawings is extremely cost-prohibitive; the Lottery does not pay television stations to carry the Lottery’s winning numbers broadcast; with up to six different drawings being conducted nightly, airing live drawings would require a significant increase in airtime from participating television stations who could otherwise sell the time to advertisers.