NH Lottery

About New Hampshire Lottery

Established in 1964, The NH Lottery is the oldest legal lottery in the United States. Now 45 states, plus the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S have state lotteries. The New Hampshire lottery got started because state Representative Larry Pickett saw a sweepstakes as an opportunity to raising money for education for the state of New Hampshire.

 On April 30, 1964, Governor John King signed the bill and on March 12, 1964, sweepstakes tickets went on sale and the benefits to New Hampshire schools began.

The New Hampshire Lottery has evolved over the years, offering a variety of lottery number games and scratch-off games. Instant Games were introduced in New Hampshire in 1975 with a ticket called Lucky X. Since the start of the New Hampshire Lottery, sales have increased from $5.7 million in 1964 to an astonishing $500 million in 2021.

The revenue generated from the state of New Hampshire has benefitted the local communities through contributions to public education. Currently, those contributions have amounted to over $2 billion and helped the state achieve its mission, which is to maximize revenues for public education.

The NH Lottery offers a range of different lottery games, including Powerball, Mega Millions, Lucky for Life, and Tri-State Megabucks Plus. These games are all multi-state games, meaning that they are played in multiple states across the country and offer large jackpots. In addition to these games, the NH Lottery also offers several in-state games, i.e., Pick 3, Pick 4, and Cash 5.

One of the most popular games offered by the NH Lottery is Powerball, a game in which players choose five numbers from a pool of 69 and one Powerball number from a separate pool of 26. Drawings for Powerball are held twice a week, on Wednesday and Saturday evenings, and players can win prizes by matching all or some of the numbers drawn. The jackpot for Powerball starts at $20 million and grows with each drawing until it is won.

Another popular game offered by the NH Lottery is Mega Millions, which is like Powerball but with slightly different rules.  For Mega Millions, players choose five numbers from a pool of 70 and one Mega Ball number from a separate pool of 25. Drawings for Mega Millions lottery results are also held twice a week, on Tuesday and Friday evenings, and players can win prizes by matching all or some of the winning numbers drawn. The jackpot for Mega Millions starts at $20 million and grows with each drawing until it is won.

In fiscal year 2021, Operating revenues for the Lottery increased by $126.8 million, or 32.3% for the current fiscal year. MUSL games revenue increased $16.7 million or 40.3%, while revenue from instant scratch games increased $48.1 million or 17.7%, exceeding $300 million in sales for the first time.

MUSL games contributed 11.2% to total revenue and instant scratch games contributed 61.7%. Tri- State games, which contributed 7.6% to total revenue, increased $12.8 million while Lucky for Life sales increased $94.6 thousand or 1.7% during fiscal year 2021 according to the NH Lottery FY 2021 annual report.