I’m in Illinois and every once in a while (as in once in my life but maybe I’ll play again), I play the lottery. We have these games:
Maga Millions, Lotto, Little Lotto, and Pick 3/Pick 4.
I sort of like the pick 3/4 game. So I got the “Official Fun Guide” on how to play the lottery. Now I know this should be clear but I don’t quite get the different ways I can win. On the website, at
it lists the ways to win. Here is what I am confused about:
I went and bought numbers and she asked me if I wanted to play “Straight/Box” - without going into the multitude of ironic answers that came to my lesbian mind, I said, “Uh,…sure.”
So then I looked at the ways to win. It includes (for pick 3):
Straight
3-Way Box (again, don’t get me started on the wisecracks)
6-Way Box
6-Way Combo
3-Way Straight/Box
6-Way Straight/Box
Front Pair
Back Pair
I paid a dollar for the ticket when the price to play is normally 50 cents so I’m assuming that I paid extra for the straight/box combination. My girlfriend and I couldn’t really figure out what I was eligible to win because the 3-Way Combo costs $1.50 to play and the 6-way Combo costs 3 bucks to play. I assumed I was eligible to win 1-3 above and 4-8 were some sort of special deals.
Anyone familiar with this and how the heck I win?
Oh - and I didn’t win jack shit - that much I’m sure about because none of my numbers showed up.
Ok lets say you played a pick 3 and bet on 123
If all you got is a straight then 123 has to come up for your to win. If 321 , 213, 312, etc shows you don’t win although you had the three numbers
If you had front pair then you would with with 12X comming up and with backpair X23 would win.
Boxing it means AFAIK the numbers you bet can come up in any order.
I assume the combo one is if you pick 6 numbers and any three come up but that I’m not certain about
It’s been a while since I worked where I had to sell these things, but what I remember:
“Straight” means that the same digits have to be drawn in the same order that you picked them. If you picked 4-5-9, the winning numbers have to be drawn in the order 4-5-9. If they draw 4-9-5, you don’t get squat on a straight ticket.
“3-Way Box” is said as just “Box”. Box means that (for the pick-3 game) the same digits have to be drawn, but they can be drawn in any order. So for a 3-digit game, there’s 3 ways to box. A box win pays a lot less than a straight win does.
-I can’t remember right off what a 6-way box is.
A Combo pays you the most for any winning combination of numbers that comes up: the different ways of playing pay out different amounts if you win. Straight (same numbers in the same order) wins the most, box (same numbers in any order) wins somewhat less and front pair/back pair wins the least. ~ Lets say you buy a boxed ticket with the numbers 1-2-3 on it. You will win the box amount if the same numbers are drawn in any order, but if the numbers are drawn in the same order you picked them (you picked a straight), you still only win the box amount, because you only played a box ticket. So what a Combo ticket does is, it pays you the most possible for any type of win you get. In this case, you 'd win the higher straight amount instead of the lower box amount, because (if you have the matching numbers) the combo ticket “counts” as whatever type of ticket wins the most.
-I think that a combo ticket pays all the wins you qualify for. So if you played 3-4-5 on a combo ticket and the numbers drawn were 3-4-5 (in that order), you’d win the straight amount, the box amount, the front pair, and the back pair amounts.
-I ain’t real sure about that though…
3-Way Straight-Box: this is kind of a mini-combo ticket: it plays as either a box ticket if you box the numbers, or a straight ticket if you hit the numbers straight.
-I can’t remember what a 6-way straight/box is either. Some ticket types were rarely ever played by anybody.
Front Pair and…
Back Pair: they’re just that: all you have to do is match the first two numbers, or the last two. Winning this way didn’t pay very much by itself, and was rarely played except in that it was included in a combo ticket.
No, wait: the 6-way box is the “normal” box, because there’s 6 different ways to arrange three different numbers. So I don’t know what the 3-way box is… Most people played straight, straight/box or combo. - DougC
Hi, folks - thank you for the help. I did some more poking and this is what I have found.
Straight - match 3 numbers in exact order. We’re all good on that one.
3-Way Box - Match 3 numbers of which two are the same, in any order.
6-Way Box - Match 3 numbers in any order
3-Way Combo - Play all 3 combinations of 3 numbers, of which two are the same and match in any order. (cost is $1.50)
6-Way Combo - Play all 6 combinations of 3 numbers and match in any order (cost $3)
3-Way Straight/Box - Match 3 numbers, of which two are the same in exact order or any order
6-Way Straight/Box - Match 3 numbers in exact order or any order
Front Pair - Match first two numbers in exact order
Back Pair - Match last two numbers in exact order
Okay, so I paid a buck for this ticket and played “straight/Box” - So I am assuming that I don’t get any of the combos. But I don’t fully understand the difference between the 3-Way Box and the 3-Way Straight/Box. If I can win a 3-Way Box if they are in any order, how is the Straight/Box any better?
The difference between a “box” ticket and a “straight-box” ticket is that if you win on a box ticket, you only win the box amount. If you win on a straight-box ticket, you win the straight prize amount, which is higher…
-And I think you win the straight and the box amount, since a straight-box ticket cost $1.50… A straight ticket was 1, and a box ticket was .50. - DougC
