Illinois HotWins
Illinois HotWins is one of the more recent additions to the Prairie State range of lottery games. This rapid-fire Keno-style draw game offers players the chance to win up to $1 million! Draws are held every four minutes, daily, except for a brief window from 3:00 AM to 6:00 AM CT. Tickets are still available to purchase, and will be eligible for the upcoming 6:00 AM draw.
HotWins tickets are only available to purchase in-person at retail locations. Check below for a complete HotWins guide, as well as a list of all the prizes available and the odds of winning them. You can also use the button below to view the latest winning numbers!
How to Play HotWins
HotWins is much easier to play than it might look at first - players are offered a lot of choice, but it's simple in practice. Check our step-by-step guide below.
Pick Your Numbers
In HotWins, you must select numbers from a pool of 1-80, but you get to choose how many to pick. You can pick anywhere from 1-10 different numbers, and the goal is to match as many as possible. The prizes on offer in Illinois HotWins vary massively depending on how many numbers you choose to play, as do the odds of winning them. Importantly though, the cost of your ticket is not affected by how many numbers you play. If you prefer random numbers, you can opt for a computer-generated Quick Pick.
If you're not sure which option best suits your preferences, check the prize tables below, or our 'How many numbers should I play?' section, further down the page.
Choose a Wager Amount
Next up, you need to decide how much to wager on your play. Illinois HotWins lets players buy $1, $2, $5, and $10 tickets. The only impact your wager amount has on your play is the value of the prizes on offer - odds, prize categories, etc. are unaffected. Put it this way: If your $1 ticket won a $3 prize, then an identical $10 ticket would have landed you a $30 prize.
Consecutive Draws?
You can opt to enter your numbers and wager amount in 1-15 consecutive HotWins draws. Since this lottery draws every four minutes, 15 consecutive draws would all be completed in one hour (unless you've played after 2:00 AM, in which case some of your games will run across the nightly draw break and resume at 6:00 AM).
Complete Your Purchase and Wait for the Draw!
Once you're satisfied with your picks, you can complete your purchase, inspect your ticket(s), and wait a couple minutes for the draw to take place. Good luck!
HotWins Prizes & Odds of Winning
There are dozens of different prizes on offer in Illinois HotWins, since the prizes all change completely depending on how many numbers you decide to play. Below, you can check the odds and prizes for every possible play. The prizes shown are what you can win with a $1 wager. If you wagered higher, multiply the prize by the dollar amount to find your potential winnings.
| Match | Prize |
|---|---|
| 10 | $100,000 |
| 9 | $10,000 |
| 8 | $475 |
| 7 | $75 |
| 6 | $20 |
| 5 | $2 |
| 0 | $2 |
| Overall Odds | 1 in 9.05 |
| Match | Prize |
|---|---|
| 9 | $40,000 |
| 8 | $4,000 |
| 7 | $215 |
| 6 | $20 |
| 5 | $5 |
| 4 | $1 |
| Overall Odds | 1 in 6.53 |
| Match | Prize |
|---|---|
| 8 | $15,000 |
| 7 | $1,000 |
| 6 | $45 |
| 5 | $10 |
| 4 | $2 |
| Overall Odds | 1 in 9.77 |
| Match | Prize |
|---|---|
| 7 | $5,000 |
| 6 | $100 |
| 5 | $18 |
| 4 | $3 |
| 3 | $1 |
| Overall Odds | 1 in 4.23 |
| Match | Prize |
|---|---|
| 6 | $1,500 |
| 5 | $60 |
| 4 | $6 |
| 3 | $1 |
| Overall Odds | 1 in 6.19 |
| Match | Prize |
|---|---|
| 5 | $400 |
| 4 | $21 |
| 3 | $2 |
| Overall Odds | 1 in 10.34 |
| Match | Prize |
|---|---|
| 4 | $70 |
| 3 | $6 |
| 2 | $1 |
| Overall Odds | 1 in 3.86 |
| Match | Prize |
|---|---|
| 3 | $20 |
| 2 | $3 |
| Overall Odds | 1 in 6.55 |
| Match | Prize |
|---|---|
| 2 | $5 |
| 1 | $1 |
| Overall Odds | 1 in 2.27 |
| Match | Prize |
|---|---|
| 1 | $2.50 |
| Overall Odds | 1 in 4 |
Prize Liability Cap
There is what's known as a 'Liability Cap' on the prizes for matching 10/10, 9/9, and 8/8. If the prizes won in one of these tiers exceed $1 million, then the $1 million limit set aside is shared evenly among all the winners in that tier.
For example, if two players matched 10/10 on the same draw, their prizes would be worth $2 million, exceeding the cap. Their prize would instead be $500,000 each, since that's $1 million split between two.
Due to the frequency of the draws and the large pool of numbers available, the odds of this actually happening are extremely remote.
How many numbers should I pick?
So, how many numbers should you play in your next game of Illinois HotWins? While it's ultimately down to personal preference, here are some points you'll want to consider.
Overall prize odds
Check the overall prize odds for each of the prize tables. These are your chances of winning a prize - any prize - with that setup. There's not really any correlation between the number of numbers you pick and the overall prize odds, but some categories stand out: If you want to play more numbers for bigger prizes but still enjoy picking up smaller wins along the way, try playing 9 numbers for overall odds of 1 in 6.3. Its neighbors, 8 and 10 numbers, have poorer overall prize odds of 1 in 9.77 and 1 in 9.05 respectively.
Prizes aren't equal across tiers
At first glance, it might be tempting to play 10 numbers every time, since the more numbers you play, the more matches you're likely to get. However, matching 9/9 compared to 9/10 offers very different prizes: $40,000 compared to $10,000 respectively. There's no right or wrong way to play, but you should be aware that playing more numbers improves your odds of getting a match, so naturally it'll lower your prizes!
How bad do you want the jackpot?
The Grand Prize in Illinois HotWins is $1,000,000, but you can only win it by matching all the numbers on a 10-number play with a $10 wager.
Win by matching nothing
If you're feeling unlucky, the 10-number prizes are unique since they offer you a way to win even if you don't match a single number. Match 0/10 and you'll win $2 for every $1 wagered.