Bullseye feature now included automatically on every ticket
By Kate Northrop
The New Jersey Lottery announced today that the price of a Jersey Cash 5 ticket will increase from $1 to $2 and that every ticket will automatically include the Bullseye add-on option.
New Jersey Cash 5 tickets are getting a bump in ticket price starting next month, the Lottery revealed in a press release today.
Starting July 1, 2024, ticket prices for the in-state daily progressive jackpot game will increase to a $2 base price. However, every ticket will include the Bullseye feature, the overall odds of winning will improve, and the starting jackpot will increase from $100,000 to $150,000.
"As players try their luck at the new Jersey Cash 5, we can expect to see bigger, faster rolling jackpots and more prizes across the board," the Lottery said in a statement.
The prize tiers for the game will change to accommodate the Bullseye feature. In the new version of the game, the fifth (or last) number drawn for each Jersey Cash 5 drawing will be the designated Bullseye number. The prize amounts vary depending on whether one of the player's matching numbers is a Bullseye number.
For example, matching four out of five numbers, but not matching the Bullseye number, will win a $200 prize, but matching four out of five numbers, where one of the matching numbers is the Bullseye number, will win a $500 prize.
The overall odds of winning will improve from 1 in 153 to 1 in 25.71.
The XTRA feature will still be available at an additional $1 per play. Players who choose to add this option to their ticket will have a chance at multiplying their winnings by either 2X, 3X, 4X, or 5X, depending on the drawn multiplier number. The XTRA feature does not apply to the jackpot.
Instant Match will be discontinued as of July 1. Once the changes go into effect, players must use the Lottery's new play slips for the game. The draw schedule will not change and the game's number matrix will not change.
It takes about a week for the Cash 5 jackpot to get around $1 million - how much quicker or larger do they desire the jackpot to get for what's supposed to be a cheap in-state game?? If they're going to double the price, they should be doubling the starting prize. Not to mention the prize multiplier should be automatic now.
I never thought this price would rise, I didn't even think the pick 6 game would hit $2, but they did. Now I have no doubt that Powerball and mega millions are on their ways to $5.
It is all just unmitigated gall and greed at play here. A 100% increase in cost to play and a 30% increase in prizes does not resonate with most.
I've stopped playing the games as regularly as I used to, talks of price increases have had me pivot and focus my attention on saving my money for more lucrative experiences. Looking to play exclusively with my office pool, which is usually only once a year when the MM and PB jackpot reach record breaking highs....
I just am not liking this trend. Raising the ticket price is one thing but bundling in the "fee-tures" and forcing them on ticket buyers is another. If all the lotteries rape the extras into the price of the ticket I will just have to stop buying them all together.
Rapists will rape I guess.
Fantasy 5 now fee-turing a higher ticket price and the mandatory floy floy.
No thanks.
The writing is on the wall for all the lotteries (maybe not, maybe some of them will have the sense not to do the mandatory bundles but I doubt it).
any way the lottery can ripped people off now mega 2 bucks pick 6 -2 bucks powerball 2 bucks they say make cash 5- 2 bucks big ripped off
Nj Robbery is so bad! Anyone who lives here knows that the lottery has gone to $hit ,all they do is profit. Scratch offs used to have winners , now if you buy 10 tickets one might be a winner and its usually a free ticket.
So this Bullseye feature is like almost every Keno game's Bullseye feature, where one of the winning numbers will be a special one, and if you match it, you win a bigger prize.
Interesting take to a lottery game in my opinion.
So in its quest for greater profits, as if having a record breaking 2023 wasn't enough, the New Jersey Lottery continues its trend of raising ticket prices while adding gimmicks and reducing prizes. In this case, what the Jersey Lottery did not include in their announcement is that they have discontinued the $2 win for matching two numbers, they have effectively reduced the Second Tier prize of Matching 4-out-of-5 numbers to $250, a fixed amount versus the $500 to $800 that it used to regularly pay under the previous parimutuel payouts. This also caps the payout of the $1 add on multiplier to $2,500 if the highest 5x multiplier is drawn. Many people do not know that there is only one 5x ball that can be drawn, two 4x, three 3x and five 4x our of the 11 balls in the hopper to determine the multiplier. Instead the Jersey Lottery is hyping the chance for faster and bigger jackpots, which is nice especially since the Cash 5 Jackpot is very winnable, usually won once a week or so. I am sure that players will see through this naked money grab. Another Jersey Lottery money grab is a new $20 scratch off NJ Lottery launched which only has $100 and $200 prizes and the incredible odds of winning that is, according to the website, 1-out-10, the worst odds of any scratch off anywhere at this price point. And they printed about 4 million tickets with only about 500,000 winning tickets. Who would risk $20 for that?