In early American history, legislators commonly established lotteries to fund schools, roads, and other public works. The government of the Indiana Territory in 1807 chartered Vincennes University, authorizing it to raise up to $20,000 in a lottery, to provide for a library and other facilities. The lottery was a failure; after a year, those few tickets that had been sold were recalled. Another lottery was authorized in 1810 to raise $1,000 to buy books for a library in Vincennes, but it was unsuccessful. Another was authorized in 1818 for the Jeffersonville Ohio Canal Company to raise $100,000, but it only brought in $2,536. The 1840s and 1850s saw a general movement against lotteries in the United States, partly on moral grounds, and partly due to a backlash against legislative corruption. The Indiana constitutional convention of 1851 adopted, with little debate, a clause that "no lottery shall be authorized; nor shall the sale of lottery tickets be allowed". Vincennes University moved to revive its lottery in 1879, arguing successfully in a test case before the Indiana Supreme Court that, under the Contracts Clause, the lottery provision of the 1807 charter could not be revoked, even by a constitutional ban. The U.S. Supreme Court soon rejected a similar argument in Stone v. Mississippi, but Vincennes was able to run its lottery as a policy game, contracted out to a group of experienced lottery operators from Kentucky, for over a year before it was ruled unlawful in 1883. In 1988, state voters approved by 62 percent a constitutional amendment lifting the ban. Indiana legislators authorized the state lottery, along with parimutuel betting on horse racing, in May 1989. The first scratch-off game, Hoosier Millionaire, went on sale in October. Lotto Cash, the first online game, began in April 1990.
Record in-house jackpot
The drawing on November 7, 2007 had a jackpot of $54.5 million, its largest jackpot ever. Retired steel worker Peter Gilbert of East Chicago, Indiana chose the cash option of $40.4 million rather than the 30 annual payments. There were no jackpot winners since October 21, 2006, so the grand prize broke its previous jackpot record of $42 million set June 5, 1999.
Current Games
In-house draw games
Daily 3
Daily 3 is a daily pick 3 game that began in 1990. Prices, prizes and types of play vary. Daily 3 is drawn 14 times weekly.
Daily 4
Daily 4 also began in 1990. Prices, prizes and types of play vary. Daily 4 is drawn 14 times weekly.
Cash 5
Cash 5 is a $1-per-play draw game, where players must match from 2-5 of their 5 selected numbers from a field of 45 in order to win. Numbers are drawn 7 nights a week.
Quick Draw is daily; games cost $1 each. Players choose 10 numbers from 1-80. The Lottery draws 20 numbers. Matching any 10 of the 20 numbers wins $300,000. This game is very similar to Keno.
Hoosier Lotto
Hoosier Lotto was the first Indiana lottery game. The draw held on Wednesday and Saturdays, and uses a 6/46 matrix. The jackpots begin at $1 million; after two drawings without a winner, the jackpot increases by $100,000 per draw. Games cost $2 each. For an extra $1, the add-on feature called +Plus add one more chance to win $1 million.
Multi-jurisdictional games
Cash4Life
The Hoosier lottery joined Cash4Life on September 19, 2016. Players choose 5 of 60 numbers in one field, and 1 of 4 green "Cash Ball" numbers in the second field. Live drawings are held on Monday and Thursday evenings at 9pm Eastern Time on Livestream. The top prize $1,000-per-day-for-life. Second prize is $1,000-per-week-for-life.
Mega Millions
On October 13, 2009, the Mega Millions consortium and MUSL reached an agreement in principle to cross-sell Mega Millions and Powerball in U.S. lottery jurisdictions. On January 31, 2010, the Hoosier Lottery began selling Mega Millions tickets.
Powerball
Since 1990, the Hoosier Lottery has been a MUSL member. Powerball began in 1992. Powerball's jackpots currently start at $40 million; it is drawn Wednesday and Saturday nights.
Retired Games
Lucky 5
Lucky 5 was replaced by Cash 5 on November 3, 2012.
Mix & Match
Mix & Match was drawn on Tuesday and Friday evenings. For each Mix & Match ticket, players received three lines of five numbers each; one play cost $2. Five numbers from 1-50 were drawn. There were multiple ways of winning. Players could have matched the 5 numbers across a three line set to win up to $5,000; or matched all five numbers on a single line to win $200,000. The game was retired on August 22, 2014.
Poker Lotto
With a cost of $2 per play, Poker Lotto is a combination of both instant and draw games. All picks are computer generated "quick picks", as the first half of the game is won by the player being "dealt" a winning poker hand on their ticket.. Regardless of a win or loss on the instant game, the player's ticket is eligible for the nightly draw, where the player's cards must match at least 2 of the drawn cards in order to win.. Poker Lotto began selling tickets on August 25, 2013. The game's end date is unknown.
