Read more about the Pennsylvania Lottery history
By: Administrator
Updated: October 13, 2010
1971 – the Pennsylvania Lottery was established on August 26, 1971 by a legislative act, Title 91.
1972 – The Pennsylvania Lottery premiered March 7, 1972 with a 50-cent ticket featuring weekly drawings and a grand prize of $1 million. The new Lottery created four winners of a million dollars each in just six months.
1975 - March 13, 1975, the first televised Millionaire Drawing.
1977 – The most popular Pennsylvania Lottery game was and is the Daily Number, introduced on March 1, 1977. It was the first of the Lottery’s numbers games where players selected their own three-digit number. It was also the first time that players learned whether or not they were winners through a live, televised drawing of the Daily Number broadcast six nights a week at 7pm.
1977 – On May 28,1977 the first triple number, 888, was drawn in The Daily Number game.
1980 – The Big 4, a four-digit game, joined the Daily Number on November 22, 1980. Originally featuring one live drawing per week, but now has expanded to seven nights a week and held immediately after the Daily Number drawing.
1982 – The largest lottery prize won in U.S. History – Pennsylvania Lotto - $5.5 million.
1986 – Super 7, the first lottery game of its type in the nation, joined the Lottery’s line-up of numbers games August 14, 1986. The first Super 7 Jackpot was won on August 27, 1986 for $4 million. The largest Super 7 Jackpot, $12 million, to date was won on October 29, 1986.
1987 – Saturday Spin, the Lottery’s televised instant game wheel spin, made its debut March 7, 1987, the Lottery’s 15th Anniversary.
1989 – Sunday drawings of The Daily Number and Big 4 instituted on July 2, 1989.
1989 – The first quad number ever drawn in the Big 4 game was 7777 on November 3, 1989.
1992 – The Lottery introduced CASH 5, a 5 of 39, all cash jackpot game on April 23, 1992. cash 5 began as a weekly drawing game and on May 3, 1993, was expanded to include drawings on Monday and Thursday evenings. By 1995, CASH 5 drawings had been increased to four drawings each week – Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Thursday.
1997 – The Lottery’s 25th Anniversary was celebrated with a TV game show hosted by Dick Clark.
2002 – June 27th marked the on-sale date for Powerball game.
2002 – June 29th, the first drawing for Powerball game in Pennsylvania.
2002 – September 14, 2002, one Powerball ticket wins the single largest one-time cash prize in the Pennsylvania Lottery’s history, $30,786,773.73. Prior to this Powerball jackpot, the record was held by the Chambersburg Food Lion 14 group for their Super 6 win on March 9, 2002.
2002 – On November 19,2002 Gov., Mark Schweiker presented a check for more than $30 million to Pennsylvania’s first Powerball winner.
2003 – February 11, 2003, mid-day drawings for The Daily Number and Big 4 games were added as a permanent addition to the lottery game line up.
2004 – The first time a quad, 4444, is drawn in the BIG 4 mid-day drawing on April 27, 2004.
2004 – First time a triple, 777, is drawn in The Daily Number mid-day drawing.
2004 – A single Powerball ticket sold in Pennsylvania wins the jackpot, valued at $213.2 million on May 8, 2004. This becomes the largest prize in the 32-year history of the Pennsylvania lottery.
2006 – Lottery’s live 7pm drawing, including the Millionaire Raffle drawing, was not televised on December 30, 2006, because stations ll over the state and country aired the state funeral of former President Gerald R. Ford.
