Virginia Lottery FAQs

The Virginia Lottery has been around for several decades. The first scratcher game “Match 3” was introduced in September 1988 and was an “instant” success, with more than 5.5 million tickets sold on day one. Powerball came to Virginia quite a few years later, in early 2010.

Now the Virginia Lottery offers instant games, daily games, jackpot games and keno games.

Here are answers to some of the most common questions about the Virginia Lottery.

FAQs

You have 180 days from the date of the draw for draw games to collect your prize and 180 days from the official game end date for Scratchers.

There are a couple sections that include letter codes (Source: Code of Virginia)

“Ticket number” means the preassigned unique number or combination of letters and numbers or barcode that identifies that particular ticket as one within a particular game or drawing.

“Validation barcode” means the unique number or number-and-letter code or barcode used to determine whether a lottery ticket is a winning ticket.

This lets a user split a play in half. You can put 50 cents on an exact order and 50 centers on any order.

It depends on the game. Some online games cost only pennies to play, but a single scratcher ticket can set you back as much as $50.

The Virginia Lottery features several draw games and the dates of the draws vary. Some of the most recognized ones include Powerball, Mega Millions and Cash4Life. WAVY.com posts the winning numbers online, at this link.

You must be 18 or older to play the Virginia Lottery. Since the lottery sells an age-restricted product, you are required to enter the last 4 digits of your Social Security Number when creating an account.

According to the lottery, more than $11 billion has gone to Virginia’s K-12 public schools since 1999. Click here to view a breakdown of revenue distribution by year and school division.