Match 6
Match 6 is the Pennsylvania Lottery's daily jackpot game. One $2 ticket gets you three lines of six numbers — your line plus two computer-picked. Eighteen chances at the cash, plus more ways to win across the combined pool.
How it works: Match 6
Pick six numbers from 1 to 49 for your line. Two extra random lines print on the same ticket. Tickets cost two dollars. Match all six in any one line for the rolling jackpot, which starts at $500,000 and grows nightly.
The real odds of Match 6
These figures come straight from the game's official number matrix, so they're fixed by math — not by which numbers you pick. A quick pick has exactly the same chance as any other combination, and no generator can change that.
- Match all 6 main numbers
- 1 in 13,983,816
Putting those odds in perspective
- Total possible combinations
- 13,983,816
- Cost to buy every combination
- $27,967,632
- Tickets for a 50% chance of the jackpot
- 9,692,843
- Tickets for a 1% chance of the jackpot
- 140,543
Playing one line per draw, you'd expect to hit the jackpot about once every 13,983,816 draws — roughly once every 38,312 years.
How Match 6 compares
Among the 14 games we generate, Match 6 ranks #10 by jackpot difficulty (1 = hardest to win).
| # | Game | Jackpot odds (1 in) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Keno | 1,646,492,110,120 |
| 2 | Powerball | 292,201,338 |
| 3 | Mega Millions | 290,472,336 |
| 4 | Bank a Million | 130,504,920 |
| 5 | Super Lotto Plus | 41,416,353 |
| 6 | Lotto America | 25,989,600 |
| 7 | Lotto Texas | 25,827,165 |
| 8 | Bonus Match 5 | 19,575,738 |
| 9 | Wild Money | 16,564,086 |
| 10 | Match 6 (this game) | 13,983,816 |
| 11 | Classic Lotto 47 | 10,737,573 |
| 12 | Tri-State Megabucks Plus | 4,496,388 |
| 13 | All or Nothing | 2,704,156 |
| 14 | Texas Two Step | 1,832,600 |
Prize tiers
| Match | Approx. odds | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 6 in one line | 1 in 13,983,816 | Jackpot — about 1 in 4,661,272 per $2 ticket (3 lines) |
| 5 of 6 | 1 in 19,088 | $1,000 |
| 4 of 6 | 1 in 372 | $20 |
| 3 of 6 | 1 in 22 | $2 (free play) |
A brief history
Pennsylvania Lottery debuted Match 6 Lotto on January 26, 2004 as a replacement for the older Big 4 game. The three-line format borrowed from the older PA Wild Card format. The biggest jackpot paid was $9.5 million in February 2008.