Pick 3

Pick 3 is an Iowa lottery game, drawn Twice daily, with tickets from $0.50 or $1. NumbersIntel tracks its full odds and prize structure, recent results and number-frequency history. Like every lottery game it is a negative-expected-value bet — played for entertainment, not investment.

How Pick 3 works

Pick 3 is a three-digit game: instead of chasing a jackpot, you choose a 3-digit number (from 000 to 999) and win a fixed amount set by how you bet. A Straight matches all 3 digits in exact order and pays the top prize of $600 — a 1 in 1,000 shot — while a Box matches the same digits in any order for a smaller prize that comes up more often. Iowa draws it Twice daily at $0.50 or $1 a play.

Digit games are the most transparent corner of the lottery: the odds are short, every payout is fixed and published up front, and there is no rolling jackpot to build. That also makes the house edge easy to see — the lottery keeps a set share of every dollar wagered no matter which number you pick, so it stays a negative-expected-value bet played for fun, not profit.

Our archive holds 10,224 Pick 3 draws going back to 1998, which powers the number-frequency statistics — the most and least common numbers, current hot and cold streaks, and the longest-overdue numbers. Those describe what has already happened; because each draw is independent, no number is ever truly ‘due.’

About this data

Every figure here comes from official lottery sources, refreshed after each drawing. We compute the odds from the game's published rules and, where the prize structure allows, the expected value of a ticket. See our methodology page for the full method, and the guides on expected value, how the odds work and whether hot numbers win.