By Staff-Jan. 16, 2015
Get ready to draw, Wyoming! The Wyoming Lottery Corporation is launching Wyoming’s very own lottery game, Cowboy Draw™. Cowboy Draw gives players better odds and ensures that winning tickets will be sold from a WyoLotto retailer right here in the Cowboy State.
“Being a Wyoming-specific game means more Wyoming players winning top jackpot prizes and more Lottery money staying in the Cowboy State,” said Jon Clontz, CEO of the Wyoming Lottery Corporation. “I expect that the Cowboy Draw game will become an extremely popular addition to our game portfolio.”
Cowboy Draw is a draw game, that plays similar to Powerball® and Mega Millions®. Players choose five numbers ranging from 1 to 45. A player who correctly matches all five numbers is the jackpot winner. Players who correctly match four, three and two numbers also win cash prizes of $1,000, $20 and $5, respectively. Tickets cost $5 per ticket with two chances to win per ticket.
Clontz explained that the big attraction for the Cowboy Draw game, offered only in Wyoming, is that more WyoLotto players will win larger prizes. “The minimum jackpot will be $250,000, and it will grow until someone wins it. Someone asked me if the jackpot could realistically hit $1 million, and the answer is absolutely.”
Cowboy Draw has an approximate payout of 68 percent, whereas Powerball and Mega Millions payouts are 50 percent. This gives our Wyoming players another great reason to play this game, said Clontz. Because Cowboy Draw is not a national game, all proceeds are retained in Wyoming.
In May 2014, the Lottery Board decided to explore the addition of new games to continue to expand the entertainment value associated with playing the lottery and increase revenue potential. In August 2014, Lottery conducted focus groups in Wyoming to evaluate player reactions to the new game concepts. After reviewing the research, the board decided to go with a Wyoming-specific draw game in the spring of 2015 and other games will follow.
The Cowboy Draw game will launch on March 15, Clontz added.
