Lotto South was a three-state

lottery A lottery (or lotto) is a form of gambling that involves the drawing of numbers at random for a prize. Some governments outlaw lotteries, while others endorse it to the extent of organizing a national or state lottery. It is common to find som ...

game in

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

Kentucky Kentucky (, ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north, West Virginia to the ...

, and

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

, which ran from 2001 to 2006. It resulted from the September 2001 merger of three smaller jackpot games, one from each of the three

lotteries A lottery (or lotto) is a form of gambling that involves the drawing of numbers at random for a prize. Some governments outlaw lotteries, while others endorse it to the extent of organizing a national or state lottery. It is common to find som ...

. This was done in an attempt to create larger jackpots. Drawings took place at the

WTVR-TV WTVR-TV (channel 6) is a television station in Richmond, Virginia, United States, affiliated with CBS and owned by the E. W. Scripps Company. Its studios are located on West Broad Street on Richmond's West End, and its transmitter is located ...

studios in

Richmond, Virginia Richmond ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), U.S. commonwealth of Virginia. Incorporated in 1742, Richmond has been an independent city (United States), independent city since 1871. ...

, on Wednesdays and Saturdays at 11:00 p.m. ET. Jackpots began at $2 million (annuitized); top-prize winners could choose to be paid either in 30 annual payments, or the cash option. The game was jointly administered by the

Georgia Lottery The Georgia Lottery Corporation, known as the Georgia Lottery, is overseen by the government of Georgia, United States. Headquartered in Atlanta, the lottery takes in over US$1 billion yearly. By law, half of the money goes to prizes, one ...

Kentucky Lottery The Kentucky Lottery, began in April 1989 after a November 1988 vote in which over 60% of voters cast ballots in favor of it. On April 4, 1989, ticket sales began at over 5,000 licensed retailers with over $5 million in sales on the first day. Ken ...

, and

Virginia Lottery The Virginia Lottery is an independent agency of the Commonwealth of Virginia. It was created in 1987 when Virginians voted in a statewide referendum in favor of a state lottery. The first ticket was sold on September 20, 1988. All profits from ...

. Sales of the game began on September 9, 2001. Its record jackpot was $27 million, won on December 31, 2005. The game had four prize levels; players needed to match at least three numbers to win. All prizes were paid on a

parimutuel Parimutuel betting, or pool betting, is a betting system in which all bets of a particular type are placed together in a pool; taxes and the ''house-take'', or ''vigorish'', are deducted, and payoff odds are calculated by sharing the pool among a ...

basis. The jackpot was paid either in cash or 30 annual payments, according to the winners' wishes. In January 2006, it was announced that the game would be retired; its final drawing took place on February 25, 2006. That jackpot was not won; the lower-tier prizes doubled (instead of rolling down the entire prize pool, which lotteries often do when a jackpot game is retired.) The three lotteries kept the rest of the money. ''Lotto South''′s replacement was Win for Life, which ended in 2011 in

and winter 2014 in

; Win for Life was retired on September 13, 2014, after which Virginia replaced it with $1,000,000 Moneyball. Georgia, Kentucky, and Virginia began sales of '' Decades of Dollars'' on January 30, 2011. (Arkansas joined on May 3, 2011.) Decades of Dollars became a Virginia-only game in October 2014, as the other three lotteries were part of the launch of '' Monopoly Millionaires' Club''.

References

{{U.S. lotteries 2001 establishments in the United States 2006 disestablishments in the United States