Digit by digit, "pick 4 lottery payout" depends on the play type. Pick 3 and pick 4 are daily number games: a player chooses three or four digits, each from 0 to 9, and a draw picks the winning digits, often twice a day. What is pick 4 lottery play compared with a big jackpot game? A small, fixed prize table instead of a rolling jackpot, much better odds, and a choice of how the digits must match. Everything else follows from that choice.
The pick 3 lottery odds are easy to count. There are a thousand possible results, so a straight play wins one time in a thousand. A box on three different digits covers six orders and wins about one time in a hundred and sixty seven, while a box with a repeated digit covers only three. The pick 3 lottery payout on a straight is typically around half of what fair odds would pay, and pick 4 lottery payout tables keep a similar share.
How does pick 4 lottery work differently? The same way, with a fourth digit. That digit multiplies the number of possible results by ten, so the odds are ten times longer and the payout is larger to match. A pick 4 lottery box pays less than a straight because it covers several orders at once. The exact prize for each play type is printed in the game rules and stays the same from draw to draw.
Pick 3 and pick 4 draws are independent: yesterday's digits say nothing about today's. Charts of hot and cold digits, sums and pairs are popular, but each digit still has the same one in ten chance at every draw, and a straight play keeps its one in a thousand whatever came before. A play chosen at random and a play chosen after hours of study win equally often. What changes the result over time is only the play type and the count of tickets.
Repeats cut the number of distinct orders, so a box on digits like 112 covers fewer results and pays more than a box on three different digits.
The fourth digit makes a straight win ten times less likely: one in 10,000 against one in 1,000.
A play that wins on any order of the chosen digits. It wins more often than a straight play and pays less.
No. Prizes are fixed by play type and stake, so they do not depend on how many people win.
Small, whatever the play: every play type returns about half of what goes in over time.
A play that wins only when the drawn digits come in exactly the chosen order. It pays the most of any play type.