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Season of winning: State lotteries kick off festive raffles

The holiday season means raffle season!

The logo for the Idaho $1,000,000 Raffle along with pictures of tickets for the Minnesota Millionaire Raffle and the Kansas Lottery Holiday Millionaire Raffle.
Todd Betzold

With the end of 2024 approaching faster than we would like to admit, that does mean the holiday season is coming, and it also means the raffle season is approaching for many state lottery offices.

What does that mean for you? Players in many states will have the chance to win millions of dollars to kick off 2025 the right way!

Holiday Millionaire Raffle

This raffle from the Kansas Lottery got an early kickoff to the holiday season, with tickets going on sale starting September 1, 2024. Each ticket costs $20.

The raffle ticket will feature a unique six-digit number ranging from 000001 to 150000 since there are only 150,000 tickets sold for the raffle. These tickets are Quick Pick only, so players won't need to fill out a play slip.

For this year's raffle, the Kansas Lottery offered players three Early Bird drawings — on October 6, November 10, and December 8 — before the final drawing is held on January 2, 2025. These Early Bird drawings give players a chance to win $30,000. If you buy a ticket before any of the Early Bird drawings, then your ticket will be eligible.

The grand prize for this raffle is $1,000,000, but players also will have the chance to win between $50 and $100,000. All winning numbers will be posted on January 3, 2025.

Idaho $1,000,000 Raffle

The Idaho Lottery announced the return of the Idaho $1,000,000 Raffle for the eighteenth straight year. This raffle features two guaranteed top prizes of $1,000,000.

Sales for this raffle began at 4:00 a.m. MT on October 21, 2024. Tickets cost $10 each and there will only be 450,000 tickets available for purchase.

The game sold out right after Thanksgiving last year, which was the fastest selling raffle game ever offered by the Idaho Lottery. So, make sure to get your tickets early.

In addition to the two guaranteed top prizes, the Idaho Lottery is also offering over 17,800 additional prizes, which range from $15 up to $10,000. There will also be 15 daily, $1,000 winners drawn during the first 15 days of ticket sales, which are chosen at random from the previous day's sales.

There will also be eighteen $1,000 prizes available for players who purchase one of the 18 tickets sold for every 25,000 tickets. If you happen to win one of these early prizes, your ticket will still be eligible to win additional prizes in the raffle, including that top prize of $1,000,000.

Minnesota Millionaire Raffle

Up next is the Minnesota Millionaire Raffle from the Minnesota Lottery, with tickets going on sale starting Tuesday, October 22, 2024.

This raffle has become very popular with many Minnesotans since it first debuted in 2006 and has become a holiday tradition. You can relate that popularity to the fact the game is raffle play style and offers only a limited number of tickets to purchase.

On top of that, the Minnesota Millionaire Raffle offers over 15,000 winners, which includes two $1 million winners. These winners are announced on New Year's Day.

The raffle tickets will be available to purchase at around 3,000 lottery retailers in the state. These tickets cost $10 and each ticket gives the player a unique six-digit number.

Players will win if the number on their ticket matches one of the 15,677 winning numbers the lottery announced on January 1, 2025.

While the two $1 million prizes are exciting and something all players will want to win, there are plenty of other prizes up for grabs:

  • Five $100,000 winners
  • Five $50,000 winners
  • Five $25,000 winners
  • Ten $10,000 winners
  • 100 winners of $500 each
  • 150 winners of $200 each
  • 5,700 winners of $100 each
  • 9,700 winners of $50 each

According to Adam Prock, Minnesota Lottery Director, the Minnesota Millionaire Raffle sold out in a record number of days last year — 22! Needless to say, if you are planning on buying tickets this year, buy them early!

Millionaire Raffle

The Pennsylvania Lottery is also offering a raffle game this upcoming holiday season, with Millionaire Raffle tickets going on sale starting Tuesday, November 12, 2024, and ending on Saturday, January 4, 2025, at 8:00 p.m. ET, unless they sell out sooner.

The drawing for the winners will take place on January 4, 2025, with over $5 million in prizes available. In addition to the final drawings, each ticket purchased on or before Monday, December 30, 2024, will be entered into one of the four 4s Galore Drawings, which gives players a chance to win $50,000.

The holiday season means raffle season, so expect more raffle announcements to come from LotteryUSA.com!

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