I love watching the lottery winnings that happen in New Jersey. In most cases these are winners where folks take home anywhere between $500,000 and $2 million, and while the huge Powerball and Mega Millions jackpots are fun to dream about, our odds are much better playing the games that offer the “lower jackpots” of a million dollars or so.
And winning that would be just fine with you and me!
Big New Jersey lottery winners don’t always need billion-dollar jackpots
Take this past Saturday night in Middlesex County — a lucky player matched all five numbers in the Jersey Cash 5 drawing and scored a $1,997,829 jackpot with a ticket bought at South River Convenience Store. That small shop now gets a cool $2,000 bonus for selling the winner!
The Ocean County couple who beat the lottery twice in one year
And speaking of luck on a whole other level, let’s talk about the Ocean County couple who made every player’s jaw drop in 2025.
These two hit the lottery twice in one year. The first big moment came on April 1 when they won the $1,000,000 top prize playing the $1,000,000 Ultimate Spectacular scratch-off. Then, this past fall, they came back and won $3 million on a Jackpot Millions scratch-off ticket they bought at the Fischer Bay Exxon in Toms River.
The combined odds of pulling off both top-prize wins? Roughly one in two trillion — which is insane!
NJ Lottery vending machine at a Wawa in Ewing Township
NJ Lottery vending machine at a Wawa in Ewing Township (Dan Alexander, Townsquare Media)
Which New Jersey lottery games have the best odds?
Stories like that get you thinking about which games really give you a fighting chance of winning. If you’re like me, you don’t want astronomical odds — you want something where your dollar really could score life-changing money without betting the farm.
That’s where the New Jersey Lottery games with the best odds come in. Jersey Cash 5, for example, has jackpot odds around one in 1.2 million, far better than Powerball or Mega Millions (both about one in nearly 300 million). Draw games like Pick-6 with XTRA or Cash4Life also offer better chances to cash in on a big prize while still delivering a serious payout.
Why smaller jackpots may be the smarter New Jersey lottery play
So next time you grab a ticket — especially from a cozy mom-and-pop shop — think about those odds and all the amazing winners we’ve seen right here at home. Who knows? Your lucky break might be just around the corner. 🎟️✨
New Jersey retail brands with the most lottery winners in 2025
These 12 retail brands in New Jersey racked up the most New Jersey Lottery winners in 2025, according to lottery data through September. The brands are listed in ascending order, starting with No. 12, and include a list of locations and winning prizes for each brand.
Gallery Credit: New Jersey 101.5
