What the NY Lotto Bonus Number Actually Does
The seventh ball in New York Lotto only matters for one prize. Here is exactly when the Bonus number counts and the odds of it helping you.
Every New York Lotto result shows six winning numbers and then a seventh, labeled Bonus. It confuses a lot of players, because it looks like a Powerball or Mega Ball but works in a completely different way.
Same drum, different job
The Bonus isn't drawn from a separate drum. After the six winning numbers come out, one more ball is drawn from the 53 left in the same drum. So the Bonus can never repeat one of the six winning numbers, and you don't pick a Bonus number when you play. You just choose six numbers from 1 to 59.
When it counts
Only one prize uses it: second prize, for matching five of the six winning numbers when your sixth number is the Bonus. For every other prize the Bonus is ignored. If your numbers include the Bonus and three of the winning numbers, that's still a three-number match.
The odds
| Match | Odds (1 in) |
|---|---|
| All 6 numbers | 45,057,474 |
| 5 numbers + Bonus | 7,509,579 |
| 5 numbers | 144,415 |
| 4 numbers | 2,180 |
| 3 numbers | 96 |
Once you've matched five, the Bonus is one of the 53 balls left in the drum, so there's a 1 in 53 chance it's your sixth number. That makes 5 + Bonus exactly 52 times rarer than matching five without it.
A two-for-one ticket
NY Lotto is one of the cheapest games to play: $1 buys two plays. The jackpot odds are 1 in 45,057,474, much better than the multi-state games, but the jackpots are usually smaller. You'll find every draw since 2001 in our NY Lotto results archive.