Minnesota Northstar Cash Review

Daily lotteries tend to have significantly smaller jackpots than lotteries that hold draws less frequently. Thankfully, they usually make up for this by having odds that larger lottos cannot compete with. In this Minnesota Northstar Cash review, we will look at one lottery that unashamedly boasts of its high odds and genuinely makes players excited about their chance to win.

History

Run by the Minnesota State Lottery, the Northstar Cash draw is one of the most popular lotteries in the state. This is because since it was first launched on October 7, 2003, the lottery has evolved to be something truly amazing. Today, this lottery claims the title of the lowest odds of any draw in the state. In fact, the odds that it offers are so great that it is tied for first place in claiming the title of lowest lottery odds in the USA!

How to Play Minnesota Northstar Cash

As you may have come to expect with daily lotteries, they are deceptively simple to play. The draw uses a single-matrix 5/31 format. What this means for you as a player is that to play, you will need to select five unique numbers that come from a number pool ranging between 1 and 31.

Once you have decided on these numbers, you can go ahead and purchase your ticket. Alternatively, you can leave your chances of winning up to complete luck and opt to buy a ticket using the quick pick option. Whichever your decision, a single ticket will cost you $1—which is most certainly a reasonable price for a lottery that boasts such odds.

Unfortunately, there are no extras that can be added to your ticket at the time of purchase. These add-ons (such as the EZ Match offered by the Kentucky Cash Ball) have grown in popularity, and we are curious to see whether this draw will soon include an add-on of its own. However, only time will tell.

Odds of Winning

When we said earlier that this lottery has good odds, we were not joking. The odds of winning any prize on this lottery draw are 1 in 7. In comparison, the US Powerball offers odds of only 1 in 25.

To make this comparison even better, the odds of winning the jackpot of the Minnesota Northstar Cash are only 1 in 169,911 (Powerball is 1 in 292,201,338 and Kentucky Cash Ball is 1 in 1,309,000).

These odds are indeed something special and probably have you halfway out the door on your way to purchasing a ticket. However, these high odds do come with a prize—the jackpot available. As a minimum, the jackpot amount is a measly $25,000. And the other three prize tiers are also nothing to get overly excited about either.

Minnesota Northstar Cash Payout Chart

Even though the jackpot amount is rather low, it does come with the bonus of rolling over each time that it is not won. This may not sound overly significant; however, the fact that there is no limit to how many times it can roll over is something that makes this small jackpot seem slightly more enticing.

Drawing Time

Draws for the Minnesota Northstar Cash are held every day at around 6:17 PM (CDT). The results of the latest draw are posted on the official lottery website shortly after the draw.

Biggest Jackpots

The largest jackpot ever handed out by the lottery was won in November 2012. The jackpot was finally won after climbing to $235,000—no small amount, even if it does not live up to some of the more popular lotteries. The average jackpot paid out by the lottery is $38,098.

Payout Options

As you may imagine, there are no annuity payment options for this lottery. This is simply because it would be entirely pointless—imagine only receiving $1,000 a year for 25 years! Instead, all prizes are paid out in cash lump sums.

Taxes

You may think that because the jackpot is not significant, the taxes won’t be either. That, unfortunately, is where your thoughts may lead you astray. All lottery winnings over $5,000 are heavily taxed in the state of Minnesota. Winnings over this threshold are subjected to 7.25% in state tax and a further 24% in federal tax. This means that if you win the jackpot of $25,000, you will only be able to claim $17,178.50 because the rest you will need to hand over to the taxman.

How to Play Minnesota Northstar Cash Online

Unfortunately, state laws in Minnesota rallied together and decided to ban the purchase of any of the lottery’s tickets from any online lottery websites. We are sure this was a blow to the lottery, and we are at a slight loss as to why they would have decided against this. Regardless, we hope that they soon backtrack and allow tickets for this great lottery to be sold online again soon.

Minnesota Northstar Cash – Is It Worth Playing?

Let’s not beat around the proverbial bush here—this is a great lottery. Sure, it may not have a jackpot that is going to radically change your life and allow you to sit by the pool the whole day sipping mojitos. But this is undoubtedly one of the best lotteries available today that you can play in for only $1. And while this is predominantly because of the excellent odds offered—we still can’t not be excited by them—the lottery stands on its own as a successful draw that has grown its fanbase over the years. And for that, we respect it hugely.

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