All news

New Jersey Lottery experienced a technical difficulty during a Pick-4 evening drawing

The mishap resulted in more possible winners for the Pick-4 game.

New Jersey Lottery Pick 4 with Fireball logo on a white background.
Todd Betzold

A mishap recently occurred with the New Jersey Lottery during a Pick-4 drawing, but it ended up being a good thing for the players.

During the evening drawing of the Pick-4 game on Thursday, March 14, the New Jersey Lottery experienced a mechanical glitch, but they were able to quickly resolve the issue.

The mechanical glitch

During that Pick-4 drawing, the New Jersey Lottery announced that not all of the balls were released into the chamber before a winning number was selected. Because of that, it resulted in an incomplete draw.

The numbers originally drawn were 8826. The Fireball number was 2.

After noticing the error, the New Jersey Lottery quickly replaced the machine with a secondary Pick-4 machine. Lottery officials tested and reset this secondary machine before a second drawing occurred without incident.

The numbers drawn for this second drawing were 8782, with the Fireball number 2

If you would like to watch the videos of both drawings, you can do so by going to the New Jersey Lottery's social media pages.

Twice the winners now

Since there were two drawings held, the New Jersey Lottery stated they will be honoring both sets of drawn numbers, even though the first drawing was an incomplete draw.

If you won during the second draw, the lottery states you should mail in a claim form along with your tickets to the lottery. Claim forms can be found at any lottery retailer, or they can be downloaded from the claim section of our New Jersey Lottery page.

The mechanical glitch didn't affect the Fireball number drawn since it is drawn from a separate machine. The Fireball number, 2, remains valid for Pick-3 and both Pick-4 drawings.

The New Jersey Lottery stated the secondary machine will continue to be used as the primary machine is checked to ensure functionality. The lottery always keeps a secondary machine on hand for such circumstances.

Pick-4 — how does it work?

Pick-4 is a daily draw game for the New Jersey Lottery. The drawings are held every day at 12:59 p.m. and 10:57 p.m. ET.

Players wanting to purchase a ticket will need to pick four numbers between 0 and 9 or select Quick Pick for the lottery computer to randomly pick numbers for them.

From there, you will need to select a bet type. There are five different ways to play Pick-4 with Fireball. You then will select the amount you'd like to wager, which ranges from $0.50 to $5. Now select which drawing you'd like to play, either midday, evening, or both. You can select up to seven drawings to play the same numbers for up to seven days with the multi-draw option.

You can also add the Fireball option, which doubles the cost of your plays. By selecting the Fireball option, you can replace one of the lottery-drawn Pick-4 winning numbers with the Fireball number for more ways to win.

Another option you can choose from is Instant Match, which is $1 extra per play. This gives players a chance to win up to $500 instantly.

Once you have your play slip completely filled out, give it to your lottery retailer or insert it into a lottery self-service machine, and best of luck when the drawing occurs!

Enjoy playing the New Jersey Lottery, and please remember to play responsibly.

Related games

Comments

Comments have been disabled for this article.

Related articles

A still image from the June 5, 2025, Mass Cash draw.
Loose lottery balls force do-over in Massachusetts draw

A mix-up with the machine door led to a chaotic but comically human moment, all fixed with a late-night draw.

Todd Betzold profile pic

Todd Betzold

The New Jersey Lottery Pick-6 logo over a yellow background.
New Jersey adds a third weekly draw to Pick-6

The New Jersey Pick-6 game tacks on a third draw on Saturdays, which means more rapidly increasing jackpots.

Halley Bondy profile pic

Halley Bondy

An Easter Sunday basket with easter eggs and a bunny.
The Easter Bunny is here, but Louisiana's lottery takes the day off

The lottery's hitting pause for Easter in Louisiana, but what about the rest of the U.S.?

Todd Betzold profile pic

Todd Betzold

Some of the Rhode Island Lottery billboards will be updated with the new LED boxes.
Upgraded Rhode Island jackpot billboards show more than $1 billion

In Rhode Island, lottery billboards are getting upgraded to accommodate bigger jackpots.

Halley Bondy profile pic

Halley Bondy

Recent articles

View All
The Jersey Cash 5, Nebraska Pick 5, and Palmetto Cash 5 logos over a pink background with golden stars.
Five-number draw games score jackpot wins in 3 states on the same night

From $180K to $472K, players in Nebraska, New Jersey, and South Carolina are a whole lot richer.

Todd Betzold profile pic

Todd Betzold

The Michigan Lottery Super Raffle logo over a black background.
Michigan Lottery launches biggest raffle prize in history

Michigan Lottery's $6 million Super Raffle returns with premium $50 tickets targeting high-roller players.

Samantha Herscher profile pic

Samantha Herscher

Parker's #94, located at 230 Church Street in Georgetown.
Woman charged with lottery fraud over a scratcher worth just $25

Investigators say she took the scratcher while on the job and then cashed it in at another location.

Todd Betzold profile pic

Todd Betzold

The Rhode Island Numbers logo over a blue background with dollar signs.
Why 1-2-3-4 just made thousands of Rhode Islanders rich

Sequential numbers just paid out nearly 500% across Rhode Island.

Samantha Herscher profile pic

Samantha Herscher