Maine Lottery

The Maine State Lottery offers multiple lottery games, including multiple drawing games and instant games.

Drawing games in Maine include:

  • Gimme 5
  • Lotto America
  • Lucky For Life
  • Mega Millions and Powerball
  • Pick 3
  • Tri-State Megabucks Plus
  • World Poker Tour

The Maine State Lottery belongs to The Multi-State Lottery Association. The Maine State Lottery became a member of the MUSL in 1990, dropped its membership two years later with the introduction of Powerball, then rejoined the association in 2004.

In the past 40 years of drawing games for the Maine State Lottery, players have won over $2 billion in prizes. This state lottery has a variety of games and prizes, including second-chance winning opportunities for tickets that haven’t initially won.

The Maine state lottery helps both small and larger businesses with a consistent revenue stream throughout the year. More than 1,250 lottery retail agents operate in the state.

Sales commissions and bonuses paid to these businesses have totaled over $335 million. Also, The Maine State Lottery has given over $1.2 billion to the state government.

These funds are used to help the citizens of Maine and include aid for:

  • Health services
  • Higher education
  • Local schools
  • The Outdoor Heritage Fund

This page aims to offer how-to-play details for the different lottery games offered by the Maine State Lottery. It also includes some pertinent details about the state’s history offering the lottery.

How to Play Maine Lottery Games, Including Pay Schedules

Here are the pay schedules and how to play details for each of the draw games offered by The Maine State Lottery:

Gimme 5

Gimme 5 features a $100,000 jackpot and holds drawings every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday at 6:59 PM ET.

You can play up to 30 draws on one Gimme 5 ticket. Each play costs $1, and to play, you choose 5 numbers between 1 and 39.

The payouts are as follows:

  • 5 numbers match – jackpot ($100,000), and the odds of winning are 1:575,757
  • 4 numbers match – $250, and the odds of winning are 1:3,387
  • 3 numbers match – $7, and the odds of winning are 1:103
  • 2 numbers match – $2, and the odds of winning are 1:10

The total return on the game is 51.55%, which is about average for a lottery draw game.

Lotto America

The starting jackpot for Lotto America is $2 million. The game has 2 panels: a high panel and a low panel. You pick 5 numbers on the upper panel ranging from 1 to 52. You also choose another number from the lower pannel from 1 to 10.

The cost is $1 for each Lotto America ticket. You can enter up to 20 draws per ticket.

If you mark the All Star Bonus Box on the ticket, you qualify for a 2 to 5 times multiplier on any non-jackpot winner. This option costs an extra $1 per play.

Here’s the pay table for Lotto America with All Star Bonus:

  • 5 number match plus 1 additional number match – wins the jackpot, and the odds are 1:25,989,600
  • All 5 numbers without 1 additional number – $20,000, the odds are 1:2,887,733
  • 4 numbers plus 1 additional number – $1,000, and the odds are 1:110,594
  • 4 numbers without 1 additional number – $100, and the odds are 1:12,288
  • 3 numbers plus 1 additional number – $20, and the odds are 1:2,404
  • 3 numbers without 1 additional number – $5, and the odds are 1:267
  • 2 numbers plus 1 additional number – $5, and the odds are 1:160
  • 1 number plus 1 additional number – $2, and the odds are 1:29
  • The 1 additional number by itself – $2, and the odds are 1:17

The total return for Lotto America is 34.60%, but the payback percentage rises along with the size of the top jackpot.

Lotto America drawings happen at 11:15 PM ET on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

Lucky for Life

The first and second prizes for Lucky for Life differ from a standard lottery game, as they don’t represent a specific dollar amount. Instead, the top prizes are payouts for the rest of your life.

The top prize is $1000 a day for the rest of your life, and the second prize is $25,000 a year for the rest of your life.

To play, you choose 5 numbers plus an additional Lucky Ball number.

Here’s the Lucky for Life pay table:

  • 5 numbers plus 1 LB number – $1,000 a day for life, and the odds are 1:30,821472
  • 5 numbers without 1 LB number – $25,000 a year for life, and the odds are 1:1,813,028
  • 4 numbers plus 1 LB number – $5,000, and the odds are 1:143,356
  • 4 numbers without 1 LB number – $200, and the odds are 1:8,433
  • 3 numbers plus 1 LB number – $150, and the odds are 1:3,413
  • 3 numbers without 1 LB number – $20, and the odds are 1:201
  • 2 numbers plus 1 LB number – $25, and the odds are 1:250
  • 2 numbers without 1 LB number – $3, and the odds are 1:15
  • 1 number plus 1 LB number – $6, and the odds are 1:50
  • 1 LB number by itself – $4, and the odds are 1:32

Lucky for Life drawings are held at 10:38 PM ET on Mondays and Thursdays.

Mega Millions and Powerball

Mega Millions and Powerball are the two biggest multi-state lottery games in the United States, and you can get full details about each at the appropriate pages on this site:

Both games are draw games with huge top jackpots and low return to player percentages.

To play Mega Millions, you choose 5 numbers from between 1 and 70 and a 6th number from between 1 and 25. The game also features the Megaplier, which randomly multiplies non-jackpot prizes by a factor of between 2 and 5.

Mega Millions drawings are held on Tuesdays and Fridays at 11 PM ET.

Playing Powerball is similar. You choose 5 numbers, this time from between 1 and 69, and you choose a 6th number between 1 and 26.

Powerball drawings are held on Wednesdays and Saturdays at 10:59 PM ET.

Both games have a top jackpot that starts at $20 million and grows over time until someone wins the jackpot. Before April 2020, the starting jackpot was $40 million, but the games lowered their top prize in response to the pandemic.

Tickets for both games are $2 each. The multiplier for each game costs and additional dollar.

Pick 3 and Pick 4 Games

Pick 3 games are daily games that you can play for as little as 50 cents per ticket or as much as $5 per ticket. To play, you choose 3 numbers between 0 and 9. This means that your number will be one of 1000 different combinations, from 000 to 999.

With a Pick 3 game, you have multiple kinds of wagers to choose from, too.

A straight bet is one of the easiest ones to understand – it’s just a bet that your numbers match the numbers drawn exactly and in order. For example, if you choose 312, and the drawing is 312, you win.

But if you pick 312, and the drawing results are 123, you lose the straight wager.

A box bet, on the other hand, doesn’t rely on what order the numbers are chosen in. You have two kinds of box bets – a 3-way or 6-way box bet.

A 3-way box bet is one where you choose 3 numbers, but 2 of them are identical. For example, you might choose 233.

Since it’s a box bet, you win if the drawing ends up with any of the following combinations: 233, 332, or 323.

A 6-way box bet is the same, but you’re choosing 3 different numbers and win if those 3 numbers come up in any combination. For example, a 6-way box bet on 123 would win if the drawing finished with 123, 132, 213, 231, 312, or 321.

The harder the bet is to win, the bigger the prize. A straight bet pays off at 500 for 1, while a 3-way box bet pays off at 166 for 1. And a 6-way box bet pays off at 84 for 1.

You can also place combinations of straight and box bets.

The payback percentage for Pick 3 is always 50%.

Pick 4 games are almost identical to Pick 3 games, but you have 10,000 possible combinations instead of just 1000, from 0000 to 9999. Payouts are correspondingly higher, you have a correspondingly greater number of wager combinations, and the odds of winning are correspondingly lower.

Tri-State Megabucks Plus

Tri-State Megabucks Plus plays much like Powerball. You choose 5 numbers from between 1 and 41, and then you choose an additional number from between 1 and 6.

The top jackpot starts at $1 million and grows until someone wins. Tickets are $2 each.

Here is the paytable for Tri-State Megabucks Plus:

  • All 5 numbers plus the additional Megabucks number wins the jackpot, and the odds of winning are 1:4,496,388
  • All 5 numbers without the additional Megabucks number – $30,000, and the odds of winning are 1:899,277.6
  • 4 numbers plus the additional Megabucks number -$1,300, and the odds of winning are 1:24,979.9
  • 4 numbers without the additional Megabucks number, and the odds of winning are  $150 – 1:4,996
  • 3 numbers plus the additional Megabucks number – $25, and the odds of winning are 1:713.7
  • 3 numbers without the additional Megabucks number, and the odds of winning are $7 – 1:142.7
  • 2 numbers plus the additional Megabucks number, and the odds of winning are $5 – 1:63
  • 2 numbers without the additional Megabucks number, and the odds of winning are $2 – 1:12.6
  • 1 number plus the additional Megabucks number, and the odds of winning are $2 – 1:15.3

With the starting jackpot of $1 million, the payback percentage for Tri-State Megabucks Plus is 39.54%.

Tri-State Megabucks Plus drawings are held on Wednesdays and Saturdays at 7:59 PM ET.

World Poker Tour

World Poker Tour is a licensed lottery game with a nightly drawing that features 2 ways to win. Tickets are $2. The game features a top prize of $100,000, but it also offers an instant win possibility of $5000.

You can choose to pay an extra $1 to increase your probability of getting an instant win.

And instead of choosing numbers, in World Poker Tour, you get a poker hand. The winning numbers are based on the cards that are drawn in the nightly drawing, although other poker hands count as instant winners.

If you get a royal flush with the “all in” feature activated (the aforementioned $1 extra), a royal flush wins $5000 and the progressive jackpot.

A straight flush wins $500 and 10% of the progressive jackpot.

The first way to win is the instant win possibility, which is based on the strength of your poker hand – any hand that consists of a pair of jacks or higher is an instant winner. In this respect, World Poker Tour resembles a video poker game.

The other way to win is by matching the cards drawn in the nightly drawing. You must match at least 3 cards to win this way.

Here are the pay tables for the instant win possibility:

  • A royal flush pays off at $5000 plus the progressive jackpot, and the odds of winning are 1 in 649,740.
  • A straight flush pays off at $500 plus 10% of the progressive jackpot, and the odds of winning are 1 in 72,193.33.
  • A four of a kind pays off at $300, and the odds of winning are 1 in 4165.
  • A full house pays off at $150, and the odds of winning are 1 in 694.17
  • A flush pays off at $100, and the odds of winning are 1 in 508.8.
  • A straight pays off at $20, and the odds of winning are 1 in 254.8.
  • Three of a kind pays off at $10, and the odds of winning are in 47.33.
  • Two pair pays off at $5, and the odds of winning are 1 in 21.04.
  • A pair of jacks or better pays off at $3, and the odds of winning are 1 in 7.69.

The payouts above assume you paid the extra $1 for the all-in option. If you skipped that, you can subtract the progressive jackpot from the payout. Also, for any hand of a flush or higher, the payout is halved – with the exception of the top two prizes.

The pay table for the drawing looks like this:

  • Match 5 cards, win $100,000, and the odds are 1 in 2,598,960.
  • Match 4 cards, win $500, and the odds are 1 in 11,059.40.
  • Match 3 cards, win $20, and the odds are 1 in 240.2.

The overall odds of winning an instant prize are 1 in 4.8, and the odds of winning something in the drawing are 1 in 235.3.

Scratch Tickets

Like other states, Maine sells a wide variety of scratch tickets in multiple price ranges. These games change nearly constantly. They’re easy to play and generally offer better odds of winning than draw games, but the payouts are lower.

Prices range from $1 per ticket to $25 per ticket on Maine’s instant games.

History of the Maine State Lottery

The Maine State Lottery launched in 1974, and the first winner was Ivan Lazure. He won $20.

In 1980, The Maine State Lottery expanded its offerings with a daily Pick 3 game.

In 1985, the Tri-State Megabucks became one of the offerings in New Hampshire, Maine, and Vermont. The first person to buy a ticket was the governor of New Hampshire.

The Lottery enjoyed its 30th anniversary in 2004. To celebrate, Maine joined Powerball – one of the biggest multi-state games.

2016 was a record year for the Maine State Lottery. Contributions to the Maine General Fund hit an all-time high of $57 million that year.

How to Contact the Maine State Lottery

Here is the contact info for the Maine State Lottery:

Mailing Address:

Bureau of Alcoholic Beverages and Lottery Operations
8 State House Station
Augusta, Maine 04333-0008

Lottery Headquarters:

Maine State Lottery Headquarters
19 Union St
3rd Floor
Augusta, ME 04330

You can also contact The Maine State Lottery by phone or email:

By Telephone or Email:

The toll-free phone number in Maine is (800) 452-8777.

The main phone number is (207) 287-3721.

You can contact the RewardME lottery club helpline at 1-800-201-0108

The email address is MaineLottery@Maine.gov.

If you’re a retailer and need to buy Instant Tickets, you can call Tel-Sel agents at (866) 835-7355.

The hours of operation for The Maine State Lottery are Monday – Friday from 8:00am – 5:00pm. The office is closed on holidays.

Conclusion

The Maine lottery has been around for over 40 years, and it’s not expected to go anywhere. Keep this page bookmarked for changes to the games available there.

To visit the official site for the Maine Lottery, go to https://www.mainelottery.com/.