Just in time for the Christmas season, the Virginia Lottery debuted a trio of holiday-themed instant games.
Holiday Gold, Holiday Towers, and Holiday Cheer offer players up to $300,000 in prizes and cost anywhere from 5 cents to $20 to play. All games are accessible to those with an online lottery account who can provide a debit card, bank account, or PayPal account.
Holiday Gold
The lottery’s Holiday Gold game offers the biggest top prize: $300,000. A ticket costs from 50 cents to $20; the higher the ticket prize, the bigger the prizes players could win. Each ticket includes 10 chances to win.
The game offers a pair of prize multipliers:
- Tree symbol: Double the corresponding prize amount
- Candy cane symbol: Win all 10 prizes on the ticket
The odds per game are 1 in 4.
Holiday Towers
Holiday Towers is slightly more involved than Holiday Gold, implementing a series of gift-themed “towers” that pay out prizes when three or more like-colored presents are stacked.
Players can choose to play between one and five towers, with each tower acting as a column to be filled with gifts. When the user clicks the “Play” button, the game drops a series of eight presents into each column, building a multicolored tower.
Three consecutive like-colored presents in the same tower will burst, revealing a prize. The column then fills the space left by the three presents. If the fill results in more winning sequences, the player wins again.
The game uses a stamp system to provide bonuses. A red stamp provides an instant win. If a player collects three blue stamps in any one round of play and has a winning sequence, they earn a bonus that multiplies their win.
Game odds are 1 in 3.88. Tickets are 10 cents to $10 and the game’s top prize is $100,000.
Holiday Cheer
Holiday Cheer is the lowest-stakes game out of the three new online holiday contests from the Virginia Lottery.
Ticket prices range from 5 cents to $2 and the top prize is $50,000. The game follows a typical scratcher format. The player has two winning symbols on the left side of the screen and nine chances to win, via three rows of ornaments one can scratch off individually or all at once.
Multipliers include a 2x symbol that doubles the prize, a stocking that gives an instant win, and a purple present that entitles the player to a bonus game with an additional six rounds of possible wins.
Rules for playing VA Lottery online games
The lottery launched its online games on July 1 and, by July 24, the games had paid out more than $20 million in prizes.
“This new way of enjoying Virginia Lottery games reflects where consumers are today and where they expect to find us,” Virginia Lottery Executive Director Kevin Hall said in a press release on July 1. “Now customers can play anytime they want, anywhere they are, as well as in the traditional way at more than 5,000 licensed retail businesses across Virginia.”
Because the lottery’s games take place online, the rules for play and prize claims are different than buying physical scratchers from retailers.
Players must connect a debit card, bank account, or PayPal account to play; credit card deposits are prohibited. Wells Fargo debit cards will not work because the bank declines state-sanctioned lottery purchases.
The lottery allows up to $5,000 in deposits during any 30-day period.
Wins of $100 or less will be deposited directly to your account. Wins of $100 or more require a more in-depth claims process that begins with an email.
