WI Lottery

Wisconsin Lottery Results - WILottery Frequently Asked Questions

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Wisconsin Lottery Drawings

The lottery's nightly drawings, starting in 1991 along with the introduction of Supercash (a $250,000 daily six-number game through most of its history) also took place at WISN-TV, and were usually drawn by Channel 12 employees not employed by the station's news department, or by employees of WISN Radio and WLTQ, which were then owned by Hearst at the time and shared the WISN studios. In 1993, the lottery added a Pick 3 game, followed by Pick 4 in 1997. After the lottery decided to partake in the multi-state Lotto*America game in 1989, the state began its Wisconsin's Very Own Megabucks million-dollar lottery drawing after the launch of Powerball (which replaced L*A) in 1992.

Other games were added by the Lottery included, but were not always successful, such as the multi-state Daily Millions, which was infamous for having few winners of the $1 million prize, and having a complicated drawing procedure involving a larger number pool and various colored balls, and the state's Cash4Life game, which offered an annuitized prize of $1,000 per week for life with a first-prize win from a 99-ball pool; only four players won that game by its end in 1999. WISN and the state lottery network never televised Daily Millions or Cash4Life drawings. The Badger 5 game continues today, however; that play style is found in most U.S. lotteries.

The televised number drawings and the Money Game were discontinued at the end of 2002 due to both budget constraints and marginalizing of the game show into lower rated timeslots. The drawings then moved to Madison, but the final stations which were part of the state network continue to receive first priority by the lottery to release the nightly drawing's numbers. The Powerball drawing is now free to be aired by any station which wants to air it in Wisconsin, although stations usually only televise the drawing during high-paying jackpots.