Hit 5 Review

In the United States, lottery has grown tremendously and is continuously attracting huge crowds of people. The beauty is that you do not have to be a United States citizen for you to take part. One such lottery game is Hit 5 which is offered by the Washington Lottery. To play Hit 5, all you need is to provide an address outside the United States if you are not a citizen and you are ready to go.

Playing Hit 5

Just like other lottery games, Hit 5 is a well ordered game offered through selected retailers and online. To begin with, you are supposed to select 5 numbers from a pool of 1 to 39. In the number selection process, you have an option to either do it manually or let the computer terminal do a quick pick for you.

It’s important to know and appreciate that the lottery is a chance game and therefore winning is not guaranteed. However, the only way to stand a chance of winning is by taking part. The cost per play is only $1 and you can win the jackpot which starts at $100,000.

When you select your numbers, the clerk at the retailer will take your playslip and generate a ticket for you. When you receive your ticket, the first thing you should do is to run a check through it. During the check, you should look for things such as the numbers you have selected and whether they have been printed exactly in the way you selected them and the dates for the draws.

In case you misplace your ticket or it gets stolen, you will be able to bar the person who has picked it from claiming a prize in case the ticket has won by signing it in advance as a security measure. As a matter of fact, you ought to sign your ticket immediately you get it from the retailer.

Winning Hit 5

Once you have your ticket in your hands, all you have to do is to simply wait for the drawings. Hit 5 drawings are normally held on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday at exactly 8 p.m. Pacific Time. The cut off for ticket sales on the drawing days is 7.45 p.m. The sales resume at 8.01 p.m. after the drawing has been conducted. Any ticket bought at 8.01 p.m. automatically qualifies for the next draw. For you to take part in any of the lotteries under Washington lottery including Hit 5, you should have attained the age of 18.

The Odds of Winning Hit 5

If your ticket has won, you need to check and confirm before embarking on the claiming process. There are very many ways through which you can check your tickets including checking on walottery.com which is the official website for Washington Lottery.

The second way you can check whether your ticket is among the prize winner is through the Check-A-Ticket machine which you can find at your nearest lottery retailer. If you join the Payers Club, you will have the privilege of winning numbers emailed straight to you daily.

Washington Lottery has a hotline, 1-800-545-7510 that you can always call to get the winning numbers confirmed to you. If you have access to a local daily, just flip through the pages and there you will see the winning numbers for the previous draw.

There are four ways of winning a prize on Washington Lottery. To win the Cashpot which is their version of the jackpot, you have to match all the 5 drawn numbers. The odds for this are 1:576,000. If the Cashpot is won by more than one lottery player, it is divided equally among the winners. The Cashpot grows in two main ways which are through ticket sales in that the more the sales the higher the Cashpot.

The second way is through rollovers where in the event the last jackpot was not won, it’s added to the following draw and this means a bigger sum.

When you match 4 numbers, you get a $100 and the odds for this are 1:3,390. Matching 3 numbers gives you $10 at odds of 1:103. The last prize category in Hit 5 is $1. To get this, you have to match any two of the drawn numbers and the odds are 1:9.62.

The overall chances that you will win a prize in Hit 5 are 1:8.77. This means almost everyone can win a prize.

Match Odds
5 of 5 1 in 576,000
4 of 5 1 in 3,390
3 of 5 1 in 103
2 of 5 1 in 9.62

Hit 5 Prize Breakdown

After you establish that you have won a prize, you should start the claiming process immediately. This is because the claiming time has a limit beyond which you cannot claim. That limit is 180 days from the day of the draw. There are many ways of claiming:

Through a Lottery Retailer

Subject to validation, you can claim your winnings at any lottery retailer sanctioned by Washington Lottery. While claiming your prize through retailers is convenient and much simpler, some of these retailers do not keep as much liquid cash which means you may be turned away if the particular retailer doesn’t have the monies you are claiming.

Through Mail

As long as you have signed your ticket at the back, you can mail it directly to Washington Lottery headquarters, P.O. Box 43050, Olympia, WA 98504-3050.

The prizes you can claim from the retailer and also through mail are those that are $600 and below.

Through the Lottery Office

Any amounts above $600 should be claimed at the lottery office. If the amount you are claiming is $100,000, you are advised to call a lottery office who will then give you more information plus an appointment to claim.

When claiming a prize, you are supposed to represent a signed winning ticket, social security card, and a voided check.

Payment of Taxes

The Federal Government classifies lottery prizes as income. This means your winnings are subjected to federal tax and you are given the balance.

With regards to information security, Washington Lottery is doing the much it can to ensure all the information in its systems is safeguarded and used responsibly.

Match Prize
5 of 5 CASHPOT
4 of 5 $100
3 of 5 $10
2 of 5 $1

Hit 5 Number Generator

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Draw Info
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