Ohio Lottery: Games, Buying Online via Courier, Results and the Education Fund

The Ohio Lottery has been selling since 1974 and occupies the pragmatic middle of American lottery law: the state itself does not sell draw-game tickets online, but courier apps operate legally, so Ohioans can get a ticket on a phone anyway — a combination that puts Ohio closer to New Jersey than to its ban-everything and sell-everything peers. Profits go to K-12 education through the Lottery Profits Education Fund, over $1 billion a year.

Ohio Lottery draw games

Game	Price per play	Drawings
Powerball	$2 (Power Play +$1, Double Play +$1)	Mon, Wed, Sat · 10:59 pm ET
Mega Millions	$5 (multiplier included)	Tue, Fri · 11:00 pm ET
Classic Lotto	$1	Mon, Wed, Sat
Rolling Cash 5	$1	Nightly
Lucky for Life	$2	Daily
Pick 3 / Pick 4 / Pick 5	from $0.50	Twice daily (midday and evening)
Keno	from $1	Every few minutes

Classic Lotto is the home-state jackpot game — a 6-of-49 with jackpots that roll from $1 million, plus the KICKER add-on that gives every ticket a shot at an extra $100,000. Rolling Cash 5 jackpots start at $100,000 and roll nightly. The Pick games run twice a day, midday and evening, seven days a week — the standard Ohio rhythm behind the "ohio pick 3" and "ohio pick 4" search box.

Can you buy Ohio Lottery tickets online?

Not from the state — but yes through a courier. The Ohio Lottery has no official online sales platform; its app checks tickets and manages promotions but cannot sell. Courier services such as Jackpocket, however, operate legally in Ohio: they buy an official retail ticket on your order and credit the scan to your account. That makes Ohio one of the courier states — the model Texas outlawed in 2025 remains business as usual here. The differences between official platforms, couriers and messenger services are laid out in our guide to buying lottery tickets online.

Ohio Lottery results and winning numbers

Winning numbers for the state games — Pick 3, Pick 4, Pick 5, Rolling Cash 5, Classic Lotto, Keno — are published by the Ohio Lottery on ohiolottery.com after each drawing, and that is the authoritative source; we deliberately do not republish daily numbers we cannot verify against a feed. For the multi-state giants we keep complete archives of our own: every Powerball drawing with prize breakdowns, and every Mega Millions drawing likewise.

Where the money goes

Every dollar of Ohio Lottery profit is constitutionally earmarked for education: the Lottery Profits Education Fund supports K-12 schools statewide, and the lottery publishes the annual transfer. Ohio also runs one of the larger responsible-gambling programs among US lotteries, a legacy of hosting both a big lottery and legal sports betting.

Taxes on Ohio Lottery prizes

On prizes above $5,000 the Ohio Lottery withholds 24% federal tax plus 4% Ohio state tax before paying out. Withholding is not the final word — Ohio's income tax rates have been falling, so the amount withheld and what you ultimately owe can differ when you file, and municipal income taxes can add a local slice on top. Estimate an Ohio win in our lottery tax calculator.

How Ohio compares

Ohio's courier-friendly, no-official-platform stance mirrors New Jersey, sits far from the official online stores of Virginia, Georgia and now Massachusetts, and contrasts completely with retail-only Maryland. The whole map is in our US lottery overview.