Everyone knows the national games are close to unwinnable: 1 in 292 million for Powerball. Far fewer people know that their own state runs games with top prizes hundreds or even thousands of times more winnable — and that the best game available to you swings enormously depending on which side of a state line you live on.
We took every state-run draw game we track, computed each one's top-prize odds directly from its published number matrix, and mapped the most winnable game in each jurisdiction. The spread is dramatic: from 1 in 10,626 at the best end to 1 in 6.1 million at the worst — a difference of more than 500× in how likely you are to hit your state's top prize.
Pick your state
Darker green means a more winnable top prize. Select any state to see its games ranked by how winnable their top prize is.
Select a state on the map above to see its most winnable games.
Why the gap is so large
The difference comes down to the number matrix — how many balls you pick, from how large a pool. A game asking you to match 5 numbers out of 52 has vastly longer odds than one asking for 4 out of 24, and states design their games very differently. Smaller states often run modest "cash" games with short odds and five- or six-figure top prizes, while bigger states tend to run headline jackpot games with long odds and prizes that roll into the millions.
That is the real trade-off: a winnable prize or a life-changing one, rarely both. A state whose best game is 1 in 170,000 is offering you a genuinely reachable prize that will not change your life; a state whose best game is 1 in 6 million is offering the reverse. Neither is "better" — but knowing which one your state sells is worth more than knowing this week's jackpot.
One thing the map does not say is that any of these games are a good bet. Every one of them is negative expected value; shorter odds on the top prize do not change that. What they change is how often something actually happens when you play.
Every state ranked by its most winnable game
Ranked by the top-prize odds of each jurisdiction's most winnable state-run draw game. National multi-state games are excluded — they are identical everywhere.
How we calculated this
For every state game we track, we take the odds of its rarest (top) prize tier straight from the game's published rules and number matrix, then pick the lowest 1-in-N figure available in each jurisdiction. No estimates are involved — these are the games' own published odds. Games are excluded only where a jurisdiction runs no state-level draw game of its own, or where we don't yet track one.
See the full method on our methodology page, compare the national games on value per dollar, or browse every game in your state from the state drawings map.
Odds are computed from each game's published number matrix and describe the top prize only; overall odds of winning any prize are shorter. For information and entertainment only — not financial or gambling advice. Every lottery game is negative-expected-value; play for entertainment, never as an investment. You must be 18+ (21+ in some states). If gambling is a problem for you or someone you know, call 1-800-GAMBLER.