News writer
Want to add a little lottery luck to your Easter Sunday plans this weekend? Well, that may depend on where you live. While most states keep the lottery drawings rolling through the holiday, others still take a rare pause. Easter is one of those days when the lottery schedule isn’t quite business as usual. So, is the lottery happening in your state on Easter Sunday 2026? Find out the answers below.
Louisiana pauses things for Easter Sunday
In Louisiana, the Easter Bunny still outranks the lottery.
The Louisiana Lottery Corporation announced it would not be holding any drawings on Easter Sunday. This is a long-standing policy for the state lottery, which also includes no drawings on Christmas Day. Those are the two days out of the year that the lottery takes a break.
Because of this break, there will be no Pick 3, Pick 4, or Pick 5 drawings that take place on Sunday, April 5, 2026, in Louisiana.
These are the only in-state draw games offered on Sundays in Louisiana. That means no drawings will be held.
While the state is not holding any drawings, that doesn't mean the lottery shuts down completely in the Bayou State. Players will still be able to purchase lottery tickets on Easter Sunday. These tickets would be for the scheduled drawings on Monday.
Since those are the state's primary daily draw games—and Louisiana does not typically run other draw games on Sundays—players won't see any in-state drawing activity for the day.
If you happen to be holding onto a multi-draw ticket, no need to worry. The Easter Sunday draw has just been skipped, so your remaining draws will just carry over automatically.
What do other states do?
While Louisiana is hitting pause, most of the country doesn't follow suit.
For sure, we know that these five states — Alabama, Alaska, Hawaii, Nevada, and Utah — will not have drawings on Easter Sunday. Why? Well, they don't have drawings on any day of the week. These five states don't operate a lottery, so there are no Easter drawings to even consider.
For those states that do offer a lottery, we also won't see drawings take place in Texas and West Virginia on Easter Sunday. Not because they are taking the holiday off, but because these state lotteries don't typically offer drawings on Sundays in the first place.
For the rest of the country, it's business as usual.
Multi-state games that fall on Sundays, like Millionaire for Life, will continue on their regular schedules. For those other states not mentioned above that do offer daily draw games like Pick 3 or Pick 4 on Sundays, those drawings will take place without interruption.
Why Easter still stands out on the lottery calendar
We are living in a time where the lottery is working to become more and more convenient for players, with self-service kiosks, mobile purchases, and debit card purchases. However, Easter Sunday seems to be one of the few holdouts where tradition still shapes the schedule.
While Louisiana is taking a break, most of the country is seeing this shift already. Most states are operating straight through weekends and major holidays alike. Even with live drawings being done digitally now, it allows for the drawings to still take place, but without employees needing to come in on a holiday or Sunday.
Enjoy playing the lottery, and please remember to play responsibly.
