Minnesota Lottery Live

About the Minnesota Lottery

In fiscal year 2021, the Minnesota Lottery had its highest ticket sales ever, $803.6 million - the fourth record-breaking year in a row. Here are some other Lottery highlights from fiscal year 2021:

• Players enjoyed a record $518.9 million in payouts
• Another record was the $188.8 million transferred to the State, primarily for the General Fund and to protect MN's natural environment. Lottery contributions since 1990 add up to more than $3.4 billion.
• On average, the state's 3,000 Lottery retailers cashed over 104,000 winning tickets every day and earned a record $53.7 million in commissions.
• Powerball was crowned the most popular game of the year as Minnesotans declared, I’MN!
• Among scratch games, Ju$t A Buck proved the player favorite, selling over 4.5 million tickets.
• The MN-exclusive North 5 (formerly Northstar Cash) was the easiest jackpot game to win, with 51 jackpot winners over the year - nearly one a week.
• The best chance of winning $1 million was Minnesota Millionaire Raffle, which had two top prize winners.
• The state will participate in the Powerball First Millionaire of the Year drawing, where one lucky player will win $1 million just after midnight on January 1, 2022.

How to Claim Minnesota Lottery Prizes

Are you a lucky Minnesota Lottery winner? Here's what you need to know to correctly claim your prize before it expires.

First things first - make sure to sign the back of your ticket right away and keep it in a safe place.

For lotto game prizes (that is, draw games like Powerball or Gopher 5), players have one year from the date of the winning draw to claim. For scratch tickets, prizes expire one year after the official end of the game. If the one-year end date is a weekend or holiday, you'll need to claim by the end of the following business day.

All winning tickets worth $50,000 and under can be claimed by mailing the signed ticket to the lottery. If you won $600 or more, you'll also need to fill out a winner claim form. Retailers may also pay out wins of $599 and under. For prizes over $50,000, winners will need to call the lottery to discuss claim options.

For wins over $5,000, the lottery will deduct 24 percent for federal taxes and 7.25 percent for state taxes before the prize is paid. Winners who do not live in the state, including Canadians, will have the 7.25 percent state tax deducted from any big wins.

What happens to the money when a prize goes unclaimed? If the winner doesn't cash their ticket by the deadline, the unclaimed prize money is contributed to the Minnesota General Fund. For multi-state Powerball and Mega Millions prizes, unclaimed wins are returned to the participating state s according to the percentage that they contributed to the prize fund.

For full details on how to redeem winning tickets, visit the where to claim prizes page.

Rules

Players must be at least 18 years old to purchase a Minnesota Lottery ticket, claim a prize, or participate in a contest.

History

The Minnesota Lottery was established in 1989 by an amendment to the state constitution and commenced ticket sales on April 17, 1990. Residents welcomed the lottery and the first week delivered $15 million in sales. Powerball tickets launched in August 1990 and Mega Millions followed in January 2010.

Since its launch, the lottery has contributed over $3 billion to programs that benefit the state. More than $1.2 billion has helped to protect the environment and natural resources across all 87 counties, and $1.8 billion has been raised to support vital state programs such as education, health, and public safety.

For every dollar spend on lottery purchases, approximately 25 cents goes to programs supporting Minnesota.