How to Play Pick 4 in the US – Straight, Box, Combo & Fireball Explained for NC, FL, VA, NJ, NY & More

Pick 4 is a daily lottery game in which players choose four digits from 0 to 9 and win when they match the four digits drawn, either in exact order or in any order. Every state lottery runs its own version.

There are 10,000 possible Pick 4 numbers, from 0000 to 9999, so a straight play has odds of 1 in 10,000. Most states charge $0.50 or $1 a play and pay $5,000 for a $1 straight win. The prize is fixed in most states; California Daily 4, New Mexico Pick 4 Plus and the Massachusetts Numbers Game pay pari-mutuel prizes that move with sales.

Local names differ. New York calls the game Win 4. Georgia, Tennessee, Arkansas and Mississippi sell Cash 4. Texas, California, Indiana, Michigan and West Virginia sell Daily 4. Delaware sells Play 4, Connecticut Play4, Washington, D.C. DC-4 and Puerto Rico Pega 4. North Carolina calls it Carolina Pick 4 and New Jersey Pick-4.

Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont share a single Tri-State Pick 4 draw; every other state draws its own. Not every lottery sells a four-digit game: Minnesota, Kansas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Colorado and Washington offer Pick 3 only, while Oregon offers Pick 4 without a Pick 3. New Jersey ran one of the first state Pick 4 games, starting weekly draws on July 9, 1977.

Pick 4 offers straight, box, straight/box, combo and pair bets, and box bets come in four sizes – 24-way, 12-way, 6-way and 4-way – set by how many digits repeat. Georgia and Kentucky add a 1-Off bet.

A Pick 4 ticket wins when its four digits line up with the draw in the way its bet type demands. The table shows each rule with a worked example.

Straight (Exact Order)

A straight bet on 5-0-2-9 wins only on 5-0-2-9. Virginia, Mississippi and Idaho call it Exact Order, and North Carolina calls it Exact. A $1 straight play pays $5,000 in most states; Iowa and Missouri pay $6,000.

Box: 24-Way, 12-Way, 6-Way and 4-Way

A box bet wins when all four digits appear in any order, and its size depends on the repeats in your number. Four different digits give 24 orders, one pair 12, two pairs 6 and three of a kind 4. Fewer orders mean longer odds and a bigger prize: $200 for a 24-way box and $1,200 for a 4-way box on a $1 play in most states. A number with four identical digits, such as 8-8-8-8, is played straight only.

Straight/Box (50/50)

A straight/box bet on 1-2-3-4 costs $1 and is really two 50¢ bets on the same number: one straight, one box. North Carolina and Virginia sell it as 50/50, and Michigan calls it 2-Way.

Combo (Wheel)

A combo bet covers every exact order of your digits, so a 24-way combo costs 24 times the base stake and a 4-way combo four times. A $1 combo costs $4 to $24 in Georgia, Florida and New York. New Jersey sells it as a Wheel and New York as a Combination.

Pair Bets: Front, Mid and Back

A pair bet needs only two digits in exact order: the first two for a front pair, the last two for a back pair, and the middle two for a mid pair in states such as Florida, South Carolina and Texas. New Jersey pays $50 on a $1 Pick-4 pair bet, as listed with the other New Jersey Pick 4 payouts. Connecticut adds a split pair on Play4. Georgia, Virginia, Kentucky, Delaware and Louisiana sell no pair bets on their four-digit games.

1-Off (Georgia and Kentucky)

A 1-Off bet pays a smaller prize when your digits are each the same as, or one away from, the digits drawn in the same positions. Kentucky added 1-OFF to Pick 4 on July 30, 2018, and every Kentucky draw is posted on the Kentucky Pick 4 results page. Georgia offers 1-Off on Cash 4, and Michigan and Indiana offer it on Daily 4.

Pick 4 rules change from state to state in the game name, draws per day, stakes, add-on and the names of each bet. What stays the same is the 1 in 10,000 straight odds, as the table shows.

Some lotteries limit how much can be bet on one number: North Carolina stops taking wagers on a number for a draw once its prize liability reaches the lottery's limit, and Rhode Island and Iowa reserve the same right. The US Virgin Islands caps Pick 4 liability at $1,000,000 per bet type. Box prizes also vary: Delaware, Michigan, Connecticut and Tri-State pay $208 to $1,250 on box plays instead of $200 to $1,200, and Iowa and Missouri pay $250 to $1,500.

A winning Pick 4 ticket is checked against its draw, signed and claimed from the state lottery before the deadline, which is 90 days to one year from the draw. A $5,000 straight win is too large for most retailers to pay.

Checking a Pick 4 Ticket

Compare the four digits on your ticket with the result for the same date and draw. To test one number against many draws at once, check your Pick 4 numbers with our checker, which flags exact-order, any-order (24-, 12-, 6- or 4-way) and pair matches over a date range of up to one year and lists Fireball matches separately.

Claiming a Pick 4 Prize and Paying Tax

Retailers pay only up to their state's limit – $599 in Florida and New York, under $600 in North Carolina, $500 in South Carolina – so a $5,000 straight win is claimed from the lottery, by mail or at a claim office. Pennsylvania retailers pay up to $2,500. Deadlines run 180 days in North Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Virginia, South Carolina, Ohio and Kentucky, and one year in New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania.

A $5,000 win is above the 2026 federal W-2G reporting threshold of $2,000. The 24% federal withholding applies only when winnings minus the stake exceed $5,000, so a $1 straight win ($4,999 after the stake) is not withheld while a $2 straight win is. The Lottery Tax & Payout Calculator estimates the federal and state tax on a Pick 4 prize.