News writer
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.
