Lotto South was a
lottery
A lottery is a form of gambling that involves the drawing of numbers at random for a prize. Some governments outlaw lotteries, while others endorse it to the extent of organizing a national or state lottery. It is common to find some degree o ...
game in
Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States
Georgia may also refer to:
Places
Historical states and entities
* Related to t ...
,
Kentucky
Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virgini ...
, and
Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the East Coast of the United States, Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography an ...
. It resulted from the September 2001 merger of three smaller jackpot games, one from each of the three lotteries. This was done in an attempt to create larger jackpots.
Drawings took place at the
WTVR-TV
WTVR-TV (channel 6) is a television station in Richmond, Virginia, United States, affiliated with CBS and owned by the E. W. Scripps Company. Its studios are located on West Broad Street on Richmond's West End, and its transmitter is located ...
studios in
Richmond, Virginia
(Thus do we reach the stars)
, image_map =
, mapsize = 250 px
, map_caption = Location within Virginia
, pushpin_map = Virginia#USA
, pushpin_label = Richmond
, pushpin_m ...
, on Wednesdays and Saturdays at 11:00 p.m.
ET. Jackpots began at $2 million (annuitized); top-prize winners could choose to be paid either in 30 annual payments, or the
cash option. The game was jointly administered by the
Georgia Lottery,
Kentucky Lottery, and
Virginia Lottery
The Virginia Lottery is an independent agency of the Commonwealth of Virginia. It was created in 1987 when Virginians voted in a statewide referendum in favor of a state lottery. The first ticket was sold on September 20, 1988.
All profits from ...
.
Sales of the game began on September 9, 2001.
Its record jackpot was $27 million, won on December 31, 2005.
The game had four prize levels; players needed to match at least three numbers to win. All prizes were paid on a
parimutuel
Parimutuel betting or pool betting is a betting system in which all bets of a particular type are placed together in a pool; taxes and the "house-take" or "vigorish" are deducted, and payoff odds are calculated by sharing the pool among all winnin ...
basis. The jackpot was paid either in cash or 30 annual payments, according to the winners' wishes.
In January 2006, it was announced that the game would be retired; its final drawing took place on February 25, 2006. That jackpot was not won; the lower-tier prizes doubled (instead of rolling down the entire prize pool, which lotteries often do when a jackpot game is retired.) The three lotteries kept the rest of the money. ''Lotto South''′s replacement was
Win for Life
Lottery games with "lifetime" prizes, known by names such as ''Cash4Life, Lucky for Life,'' and ''Win for Life,'' comprise two types of United States lottery games in which the top prize is advertised as a lifetime annuity; unlike annuities with a ...
, which ended in 2011 in Kentucky and winter 2014 in Georgia; Win for Life was retired on September 13, 2014, after which Virginia replaced it with $1,000,000 Moneyball.
Georgia, Kentucky, and Virginia began sales of ''
Decades of Dollars Decades of Dollars (DoD) was the name of a Virginia-only lottery game; it began as a multi-state game in January 2011. Georgia and Kentucky joined Virginia in launching DoD; Arkansas joined in May 2011. (DoD replaced ''Win for Life'' in Kentucky; W ...
'' on January 30, 2011. (Arkansas joined on May 3, 2011.) Decades of Dollars became a Virginia-only game in October 2014, as the other three lotteries were part of the launch of ''
Monopoly Millionaires' Club''.
{{U.S. lotteries
2001 establishments in the United States
2006 disestablishments in the United States