Money Lottery States Winning Popular Washington Numbers Jackpot

In the United States, lotteries are run by the states. For example, in California, you can buy a lottery ticket for the California Super Lotto. There are also lotteries formed by several states together. These are called "interstate," or more than one state, lotteries and they have very big jackpots. The more popular ones are the Tri-State Lotto for the states of Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont; Mega Millions for the states of Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Virginia, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Washington, Texas, and California; and Powerball in which 29 states, Washington, D.C. and the U.S. Virgin Islands all participate. In all of these lotteries, you pick a group of numbers to match the set of numbers chosen by a machine.

When someone buys a lottery ticket, they have a choice of how they want their money if they win. They can choose the "lump sum" option to get the money all at one time right away, but the amount of money they get is about half of the actual jackpot. Or, they can get the money "in annual installments," which means that the jackpot will be paid to them over many years, such as 20, but they will get most of the jackpot amount.

There are also smaller lotteries that do not pay as much, but that are still popular because they can know right away if they have won. Instant tickets, also known as "scratch cards" or "scratchers" are small paper cards that have a covering over the pictures or numbers. You "scratch," or rub, the covering off to see if you are a winner. If you win, you can normally get your prize right away by bringing it back to the place where you bought it.