South Dakota Lottery
For Immediate Release: Thursday, August 3, 2006
Contact: Mike Mueller, 773-5770

Wild Card Jackpot Too Big for Lottery’s Signs

(Pierre) – The jackpot signs at Lottery retail locations across the state say the top prize for the Wild Card 2 lotto game is $999 thousand, but that’s because the signs can’t go any higher. The estimated jackpot for Saturday’s drawing is really $1,015,000.

"A jackpot this high for Wild Card is extremely rare," said Lottery executive director Norm Lingle. "It’s only been over $1 million once before in August of 2001," he said. That record setting jackpot of $1,284,326 was won in Idaho.

The last time someone won the Wild Card 2 jackpot was on March 1, 2006. Saturday will be the 45th drawing since the jackpot was last won.

Because they can’t display a larger amount, the signs will continue to show $999 thousand for Wild Card 2 until someone wins and the cash jackpot starts over at $100,000. The correct jackpot amount is available at the Lottery’s website http://www.sdlottery.org

The three foot square signs with LED displays are hung in the convenience and grocery stores that sell lotto tickets. Each sign can display three digits and decimals for each of the four lotto games offered by the Lottery. While the numbers can change, the dollar denomination below the amount is permanently displayed. For Wild Card 2 and Dakota Cash, the denomination is thousands, for Powerball and Hot Lotto, it’s millions.

Wild Card 2 is played in South Dakota, North Dakota, Idaho and Montana. Players pick five numbers from 1 to 31 and a face card, and get two plays for $1. The odds of winning the cash jackpot are 1 in 1,359,288. The odds of winning any prize in the game are 1 in 6.

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