Return Ledger

What this game actually paid back

A lottery’s declared return is a design figure. What it paid on a given night is a different number, and where the prize table and a ticket count are both readable it can be worked out exactly: prizes paid, over what the lines cost. Almost every night it is well under half.

Every figure here is about draws that have already happened. A night above the price is visible only afterwards, and nothing on this page says anything about the next one.

Draw by draw

Cash 55/35 era · since Jan 20106,112 draws

Scroll the chart sideways →

jackpot wonroll-downthin salesnot explained

Over this era the game paid back 74.3% of what was staked, and was above the price on 967 of 6,112 draws.

Prize-table return ledgerreturn-ledger-v1

The dashed rule is break-even. Above it the scale is compressed, because a single roll-down night can pay back twenty times its stake and would otherwise flatten every ordinary draw into one line. Marked nights are the ones above the price.

How often it lands where

Cash 55/35 era · since Jan 20106,112 draws

20%

3,846

35%

1,109

50%

65%

80%

90%

100%

125%

357

150%

452

200%

105

300%

Every draw of the era, binned by what it paid back. The bands are not equal width — they are narrowest around break-even, where the interesting nights are — and the heights are square-rooted, because nine draws in ten land in two adjacent bands. Each bar carries its own count.

The nights above the price

Cash 55/35 era · since Jan 2010967 draws

Draw	Paid back	Why	Lines
2010-01-04	155%	jackpot won	84,330
2010-01-09	182%	jackpot won	74,628
2010-01-12	192%	jackpot won	66,941
2010-01-14	297%	jackpot won	82,091
2010-01-16	175%	jackpot won	87,240
2010-01-17	201%	jackpot won	66,419
2010-01-21	268%	jackpot won	60,673
2010-01-26	157%	jackpot won	89,106
2010-01-29	251%	jackpot won	122,838
2010-02-02	330%	jackpot won	81,942
2010-02-07	180%	jackpot won	73,285
2010-02-16	167%	jackpot won	79,180
2010-02-25	364%	jackpot won	64,553

Each with the reason it happened. A won jackpot is the game working, not an edge.

And across every game

And across every game60 draws

Draw	Game	Paid back	Prizes paid
2026-10-22	Millionaire for Life	159%	512,194
2026-10-22	Jersey Cash 5	129%	59,010
2026-10-21	Hit 5	298%	578,710
2026-10-21	Kicker	324%	25,054
2026-10-21	Match 4	165%	38,248
2026-10-21	Jersey Cash 5	124%	85,200
2026-10-21	Millionaire for Life	160%	586,295
2026-10-21	All or Nothing	131%	26,182
2026-10-20	Millionaire for Life	129%	391,332
2026-10-20	LuckyDay Lotto	144%	178,508
2026-10-20	Match 4	152%	25,950
2026-10-19	Texas Two Step	132%	1,100,396
2026-10-19	Pick 5	296%	139,807
2026-10-19	LuckyDay Lotto	183%	223,575
2026-10-19	Jersey Cash 5	453%

The most recent draws anywhere on this site that paid out more than they took.

The ledger

Cash 55/35 era · since Jan 20106,112 draws

Over the whole era: 74.3%
Median draw: 46.2%
Nights above the price: 967
Draws read: 6,112 / 6,112
Declared return: —

Nobody has recorded what this game says it pays back, so there is nothing to compare the measured figure with.

Prize-table return ledgerreturn-ledger-v1

The maths, in plain language

The story behind it

Paid back	Draws
0% – 20%	0
20% – 35%	72
35% – 50%	3,846
50% – 65%	1,109
65% – 80%	98
80% – 90%	13
90% – 100%	7
100% – 125%	9
125% – 150%	44
150% – 200%	357
200% – 300%	452
300% – 500%	105

What this game actually paid back

Draw by draw

How often it lands where

The nights above the price

And across every game

The ledger

Realised return, and what makes a night exceed it

The only edge that ever came from the rulebook