A: Every one of our lottery wheels has a minimum win guarantee.
It shows you what lotto prize you can expect to win with a wheel if you
match a certain amount of the winning numbers in the group you chose to wheel.
What do the numbers in a minimum win guarantee mean?
A win guarantee includes 2 numbers, let's call them A and B. If the
minimum win guarantee of the wheel is A/B, then you must get B winning numbers
within the set of numbers you chose to wheel, and if you satisfy that condition,
then you are guaranteed to get an A number win.
If A=4 and B=4, for a 4/4 guarantee, it means you will get at least a 4 number prize if you match 4 winning numbers.
Another Example
A detailed example: For wheel 53226 and wheel 53235, both have a 3/5 guarantee.
What that means is that if you have all 5 winning numbers within your
26 or 35 numbers wheeled (respectively), then you are guaranteed a 3
number win. It's possible that you might get up to a 5 number win if you
match the guarantee for these wheels, but that is not part of the guarantee.
If you only chose 3 or 4 of the winning numbers in your number set, then
the condition of the minimum win guarantee won't be met, and you wouldn't be guaranteed
a win (although a 3 or 4 number win would still be possible in this case).
To get a 3 number guarantee with only 3 numbers right, you'd have to
use a 3/3 guarantee wheel (if 3 winning numbers
trapped within your wheel, then guaranteed 3 number win).
Full Wheel Win Guarantees
A full wheel have jackpot minimum win guarantee, such as a guarantee of 5/5 for a pick-5 wheel, 6/6 for a pick-6 wheel, etc.
The balanced wheel programs include only the smallest full wheels, up to about 500 combinations. You must get every single winning number correct in the group you choose to wheel in order to guarantee the jackpot.
With Filtering Full Wheel Generator, if you use a filter on a full wheel, it no longer has a jackpot win guarantee since you are eliminating combinations that would give you the guarantee.
If the winning numbers meet the conditions you set in the filter, you can still win a jackpot, but it is not guaranteed.
More Information
For more information and examples, see also: Minimum Win Guarantee on our Lotto Terms Glossary.