''Wild Card'' (for part of its history ''Wild Card 2'') was a lottery game that was available in

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Montana and Wyom ...

Montana Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbi ...

Nebraska Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the southwe ...

North Dakota North Dakota () is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the Native Americans in the United States, indigenous Dakota people, Dakota Sioux. North Dakota is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north a ...

, and

South Dakota South Dakota (; Sioux language, Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state in the West North Central states, North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Lakota people, Lakota and Dakota peo ...

, although at no point did the five lotteries offer it simultaneously. The game was administered by the

Multi-State Lottery Association The Multi-State Lottery Association (MUSL) is an American non-profit, government-benefit association owned and operated by agreement of its 34 member lottery, lotteries. MUSL was created to facilitate the operation of multi-jurisdictional lottery ...

(MUSL), which is best known for

Mega Millions Mega Millions (originally known as ''The Big Game'' in 1996 and renamed, temporarily, to ''The Big Game Mega Millions'' six years later) is an American multi-jurisdictional lottery game; as of January 30, 2020, it is offered in 45 states, the Di ...

and

Powerball Powerball is an American lottery game offered by 45 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. It is coordinated by the Multi-State Lottery Association (MUSL). From its inaugural drawing on April 19, 1992, unti ...

. ''Wild Card (2)'' was drawn Wednesdays and Saturdays until February 24, 2016. The original version of the game began in 1998; it was known as ''Wild Card'', and lasted 15 months; it was played in

, and

. The game's format was changed, with a "2" added to the name, in May 1999; Nebraska dropped out upon the format change. North Dakota joined in 2004. In late 2015, the "2" was dropped from the name, although the game itself was not altered.

Format

Under the game's most recent format, whose first drawing was on January 16, 2013, players got two games for each $1 wagered; games had to be played in pairs. Each game was played in the same manner as ''Mega Millions'' or ''Powerball''; five numbers from 1 through 33 were selected. The sixth "number" was actually 1 of 16 representations of playing cards: a

Jack Jack may refer to: Places * Jack, Alabama, US, an unincorporated community * Jack, Missouri, US, an unincorporated community * Jack County, Texas, a county in Texas, USA People and fictional characters * Jack (given name), a male given name, ...

Queen Queen or QUEEN may refer to: Monarchy * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a Kingdom ** List of queens regnant * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Queen mother, a queen dowager who is the mother ...

King King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...

, or the

Ace An ace is a playing card, Dice, die or domino with a single Pip (counting), pip. In the standard French deck, an ace has a single suit (cards), suit symbol (a heart, diamond, spade, or club) located in the middle of the card, sometimes large a ...

of any of the four suits: clubs, hearts, diamonds, or spades. (The previous version drew from 31 numbers, but from the same number of "Wild Cards.") All prizes, including the

jackpot Jackpot or Jackpot! may refer to: * A prize, such as a progressive jackpot * Gardena jackpots, a poker variant * Jackpot, Nevada, a community on the Nevada–Idaho state border Comics * Jackpot (comics), several comic book characters * ''Jack ...

, were paid in

cash In economics, cash is money in the physical form of currency, such as banknotes and coins. In bookkeeping and financial accounting, cash is current assets comprising currency or currency equivalents that can be accessed immediately or near-imm ...

. The minimum jackpot was $200,000; it was $100,000 in the previous version. In addition to the jackpot, the other prizes in the 2013-2016 version were: * All 5 numbers without Wild Card (5+0): $6,000 * 4 numbers plus Wild Card (4+1): $500 * 4+0: won $30 * 3+1: won $6 * 3+0: won $2 * 2+1: won $2 * 1+1: won $1 * 0+1: won $1 Among the reasons for the 2013 changes to Wild Card was to attract more American lotteries to the game, although none joined since North Dakota in 2004. The final drawing for ''Wild Card'' was on February 24, 2016.

References

External links

MUSL official siteIdaho LotteryMontana LotteryNorth Dakota LotterySouth Dakota Lottery
{{U.S. lotteries Lottery games in the United States Computer-drawn lottery games