NEW JERSEY – The New Jersey Lottery will add a third drawing to its Pick-6 game. There will be no price increases or changes to the game matrix or Double Play add-on.
Pick-6, which costs $2 per play, currently has two draw days a week, Mondays and Thursdays. A third draw day on Saturdays will begin July 12.
Retailers are already adjusting their advance-sale process. A unique feature of the Pick-6 game is that players can purchase tickets for as many as 26 future drawings. As of April 15, players were temporarily limited to 24 future purchases in preparation for the change to the third drawing. That number decreases by one after each subsequent drawing until Friday, July 11, after which players can resume buying as many as 26 future draws.
“I’m excited about this enhancement,” New Jersey Lottery Director James Carey said. “Everything we do is to benefit our players. By having an additional drawing each week, we will see jackpots grow even faster. That means more excitement for everybody!”
Pick-6 is the most venerable game in the New Jersey Lottery’s 55-year history. On May 9, 1980, the Lottery’s pioneering director, Gloria Decker, shepherded Pick-6 into existence as it became the first game of its kind in the nation.
The most recent changes to the game came in April 2022 when improved player odds and the Double Play drawing were added. In Double Play, players can pay an additional $1 to enter a secondary drawing that offers a chance at a pari-mutuel fixed prize of $250,000 as well as larger lower-tier prizes than the base game. The game enhancements led to year-over-year sales growth in fiscal years 2023 and 2024, which saw sales of $80 million.
The New Jersey lottery works with nearly 6,800 retailers, who earned a total of $214 million in commissions in fiscal year 2024. That works out to an average of more than $30,000 a year per retailer. When a big jackpot is hit, the retailer can receive a bonus of as much as $10,000.
In 2025, there have been two big jackpot wins: a $5.5 million haul March 20 at the Clark Cardsmart in Union County and a $32 million prize Jan. 20 in the Ocean County township of Jackson. The highest Pick-6 jackpot of all time was $48.9 million, won in Passaic County’s Clifton in 2001.
Other notable recent Pick-6 wins:
- March 28, 2024: $30 million split equally by two players in Morris and Monmouth counties.
- May 13, 2024: $4.5 million in Morris County.
- June 13, 2024: $3 million in Burlington County.
