The Texas Lottery is one of the only state-approved legal gambling options in Texas, with revenue supporting education and veterans assistance programs in the Lone Star State. The Texas Lottery offers a wide selection of draw games and instant win scratch-off games, and it also participates in popular multi-state draw games like the Powerball and Mega Millions. There is a Texas Lottery online website and a Texas Lotto app that offer several helpful features, but they do not sell tickets directly.
Let’s take a look at the many different games the Texas Lottery offers, the procedure to claim prizes and how to buy lottery tickets..
Texas Lottery online multi-state draw games
The Texas Lottery participates in the Multi-state Lottery Corporation draw-style games. Those contests include the very popular Mega Millions and Powerball titles. You can buy tickets for the bi-weekly drawings at pretty much any lottery retailer in the state. You can also use our Texas Lottery number generator to help you select your numbers for these multi-state games.
These aren’t the only draw-style games available in Texas, however. The state’s lottery offers its own titles with regular drawings, some of which also carry significant jackpots.
Powerball
Powerball might be the most well-known lottery game in the country. It made history with the world record for largest jackpot: $2.04 billion.
For just $2 a ticket, players select five numbers between 1-69 and one Powerball number between 1-26. For $1 more, players can engage the Power Play, which increases the winnings of any non-jackpot prizes. You can buy single tickets or activate a subscription for the same lucky numbers in every drawing.
Powerball winners have racked nine- and 10-figure jackpots in this progressive-style jackpot game. Each drawing decides the value of the Power Play, but the highest available multiplier is 10X.
Matching the Powerball alone will net a $4 prize as will matching the Powerball and any one number. To win the jackpot, players must match all five numbers and the Powerball. It is not necessary to match the sequence of the draw.
- Drawings for Powerball occur every Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday at 9:59 p.m. from the Florida Lottery studio in Tallahassee.
- Tickets can be purchased at Texas Lottery retailers throughout the state.
How to watch Powerball Drawings
A few Texas cities will carry the Powerball drawing live. Those are:
- Houston: KHOU, CBS 11
- Midland-Odessa: KMID, ABC 2
- San Antonio: WOAI, NBC 4
- San Antonio: KABB, Fox 3
For residents outside those markets, all drawings are live-streamed at Powerball.com or on the Texas Lottery Commission website.
Mega Millions
As the original multi-state draw game, Mega Millions has retained its stature over the years alongside Powerball.
Both games function in nearly the same way. In Mega Millions, players select five numbers between 1-70 and one Mega Ball between 1-25. A single gameplay costs $2, but for $1 more, players can engage a Megaplier, increasing the value of their non-jackpot winnings.
You can buy single tickets or activate a subscription for the same lucky numbers in every drawing.
Mega Millions winners must match the five numbers plus the Gold Mega Ball to win the jackpot. It’s not necessary to match the sequence in order to win.
- Drawings for Mega Millions are held Tuesday and Friday at 10 p.m.
- Tickets for Mega Millions can be purchased through all Texas Lottery retailers.
How to watch Mega Millions drawings
They can be streamed live on the Mega Millions YouTube channel.
State draw games in Texas
The chase of nine-figure jackpots creates a lot of publicity for multi-state draw games, but the catalog of draw-style games available only in Texas is actually much bigger.
“Daily draws” for the Texas Lottery drawings actually happen six days a week, excluding Sundays.
Among the featured titles:
- Pick 3: Pick three numbers, each from 0 to 9, and select whether you want to play exact order, any order, both exact or any order, or combo (all exact order combinations on one ticket). Play for as little as $0.50, and depending on the chosen play style win up to $500. Choosing the Fireball feature doubles the ticket price and increases the potential payout. Drawings happen four times per day.
- All or Nothing: This $2 ticket has two ways to win $250,000. As the name suggests, matching either all 12 numbers or none of them gets you to that top prize. With four drawings on each appropriate day, the 1:11 chances of breaking even look decent.
- Cash Five: For just $1, you can get your spot in the daily drawing worth up to $25,000. One in every eight tickets wins a free play by matching at least two numbers while matching all five numbers takes the top prize.
- Daily 4: As the name suggests, pick four numbers for this drawing that happens four times daily. All the different combinations of four numbers have their own corresponding prizes, at the 50 cents and $1 play levels. For example, picking two sets of two like-winning numbers wins $2,500 on a 50-cent play or $5,000 on a $1 ticket.
- Lotto Texas: Players get the option to add Extra! to this $1 ticket for another dollar. Doing so can increase the value of non-jackpot prizes up to $10,000. Drawings for this game take place only on Wednesdays and Saturdays, with a jackpot that builds value until someone wins it by matching all six numbers.
- Texas Two-Step: Pick four numbers and one Bonus Ball, pay your dollar, then watch for the Texas Lottery results of the Monday and Thursday drawings. This game also has a progressive jackpot, which you can claim by matching all the numbers on your play slip. Matching just one number wins $5, and just the Bonus Ball pays $7.
Instant win games in Texas
If you prefer to not have to wait for a drawing, scratch-off games are renowned for their instant gratification. With prices for tickets ranging from $1 all the way up to $100, there’s something for every playing budget with Texas Lottery scratch off games.
As you would expect, the number and value of potential prizes go up as the ticket cost does. For example, the $1 10X The Cash scratcher has a top prize of $5,000, whereas the $100 $20 Million Supreme card can be worth up to the amount in its name.
The Texas Lottery refreshes these games often to keep players engaged as well.
Lottery retailers
With thousands of lottery retailers across the state, odds are you won’t have to go far to buy your lottery ticket of choice. Many different types of businesses can get licenses to sell tickets. They include:
- Convenience stores
- Grocery stores
- Gas stations
- Liquor stores
- Truck stops
As long as you’re at least 18 years of age, you can buy lottery tickets at any licensed retailer in Texas. Remember to play responsibly.
Buy Texas Lottery tickets online
Is it legal to buy lottery tickets online in Texas? No, the Texas Lottery does not sell lottery tickets online through its website or app, and lottery couriers like the ones listed below do not operate in the state.
Jackpot.com
Jackpot.com allows courier purchases in many states, but Texas is not among them.
Jackpot offers an easy-to-use mobile app for iOS and Android that operates as a courier service for lottery players. I
To create a Jackpot.com account, a player must verify their identity by scanning and sending a copy of a state- or federally-issued ID. Utlility bills, bank statements and tax returns can also be used to verify identity. The verification ensures that all players are 18 or over and currently reside in Texas. The process can take between 48-72 hours.
Winning players can then claim their prizes in two ways:
- Prizes of $599 or less will be directly deposited into a player’s connected bank account.
- Prizes of $600 or more can be claimed, anonymously or not, directly through the Texas Lottery.
Jackpot.com does state that they will ask jackpot winners to do some optional promotional marketing. Jackpot.com is currently available in Arkansas, Massachusetts, New York, and Ohio.
TheLotter
TheLotter is another online lottery ticket service, though it is not available in Texas. It is essentially a third-party “courier” purchasing service that enables the purchase of lottery tickets online. TheLotter is available in a handful of states, including Minnesota, Oregon, and New Jersey.
Jackpocket.com
Not to be confused with Jackpot.com, Jackpocket.com is a mobile application for Android and iOS devices. It’s not affiliated with the Texas Lottery, and it does not offer its services in Texas right now.
Jackpocket.com allows players to check drawing results
JAckpocket is only available in Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, the District of Columbia, Idaho, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oregon, and West Virginia.
Texas Lottery app and website
There is an app that you can download from the Texas Lottery website that makes playing easier in several ways. While you cannot purchase tickets via the app, you can take advantage of a number of other helpful features and also take advantage of special second-chance drawings for non-winning tickets. You can also:
- Check your tickets to see if you’ve won
- Prepare your draw plays with your favorite numbers
- Find the closest retailer to your location
- Check on jackpot values
- Review the current catalog of scratch-off tickets
Plus, if the law ever changes to allow online sales, you’ll be ready for that day.
Who benefits from the Texas Lottery?
One of the biggest selling points of playing the lottery is the way it helps fund state programs. Without the money the lottery disperses, many educational and veterans’ assistance programs in the state would struggle to provide their services.
Since 1997, the Texas Lottery has contributed $31.6 billion to the Foundation School Fund. In the fiscal year 2023 alone, the Foundation School Fund received $2.1 billion from the lottery.
Veterans’ contributions are more recent but no less robust. Since 2009, the lottery has paid over $248 million to programs that serve veterans in the state. Over 90% of these programs’ annual revenue stems from special scratch games dedicated to veterans’ causes. Just in FY 2023, those games paid out $29.7 million to the Texas Veterans Commission.
Timeline of the Texas Lottery
Here is a timeline for the Texas Lottery, hitting all the highlights that have brought the company to where it is today.
- Nov. 5, 1991: Texas approves a ballot measure authorizing a state lottery by a 2:1 margin.
- March 7, 1992: State awards contract to GTECH to produce and distribute tickets.
- May 28, 1992: First tickets go on sale, with over 102 million sold in the first week.
- May 25, 1993: Gov. Ann Richards approves a bill to create the Texas Lottery Commission. The Commission holds its first meeting in February 1994.
- March 10, 1996: Total sales since launch surpass $10 billion.
- Dec. 15, 2002: Total transfers to the state since launch surpass $10 billion.
- Dec. 3, 2003: Texas Lottery begins selling multistate lottery tickets.
- Nov. 9, 2009: Lottery announces the first-ever veterans assistance scratch-off game.
- Sept. 27, 2017: Annual sales surpass $5 billion for the first time.
- Sept. 24, 2020: The Texas Lottery breaks its own sales record for the 10th consecutive fiscal year.
- Feb. 28, 2022: Lottery continues its expansion of options for Texas grocery stores by allowing QUICKTICKET sales in Kroger stores.
- Oct. 4, 2023: Lottery announces it generated more than $2 billion for its beneficiaries in a single fiscal year for the first time, as the agency set a new all-time sales record with $8.73 billion in lottery sales in FY 2023.
- Oct. 6, 2023: A jackpot-winning ticket for the advertised $360 million Mega Millions drawing was sold in Texas, marking the largest Mega Millions jackpot ever won by a Texas Lottery player.
- Dec. 6, 2023: Through a partnership with Space Perspective, it was announced that the Lottery would be the first lottery in the world to offer flights on Space Perspective’s Spaceship Neptune as a second-chance prize.
Final thoughts on Texas Lottery
Even though you can’t yet play the Texas Lottery online, the lottery is a great option for Texas residents who want to gamble while supporting important causes like education and veterans affairs. The option to buy Texas Lottery tickets online through third-party couriers also makes buying tickets very convenient. With so many ways to play, anybody in Texas can have some fun and try to win some money by playing the Texas Lottery.