Happy Lucky Lottery

Lucky is angry at Mario for cheating Happy Lucky Lottery.

The Happy Lucky Lottery

The Happy Lucky Lottery is a lottery held in Rogueport in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. It is run by a Bulky Bob-omb named Lucky. In order to win the lottery, the player must first purchase a Lottery Ticket from Lucky. A Doogan normally hangs out here, cursing his bad luck. The lottery is located in the west side of Rogueport.

At midnight, according to the time on the Nintendo GameCube, a winning number is generated. Adjusting the GameCube's clock forward will allow the player to check their number again. However, changing the clock backwards will have Lucky accuse the player of cheating. If the player admits that they changed the clock, Lucky will have a meltdown and pretend to give a Game Over. If the player does not admit to cheating through Lucky's dialogue, he will assume this is just a mistake. Regardless of which choices are selected, the lottery will not restart until Mario pays 500 coins for a Lottery Ticket.

Guaranteed wins

Contrary to popular belief, winning numbers are not truly randomly generated. Instead, the GameCube determines which number to show based on how much time has passed since the purchase of a ticket. Checking within 4-10 days will reward the player with fourth prize, within 25-35 days will reward the player with third prize, within 85-115 days will reward the player with second prize, and within 335-395 days will reward the player with first prize. Checking the board on any other day will result in a randomly-generated, non-winning number and reward the player with the consolation prize. Additionally, buying a new ticket will reset the day count. Daylight Savings Time is not taken into account, as not every region follows it. If the player realizes they forgot to set the GameCube clock back after starting the save file, and they go to change it back an hour, Lucky will still accuse the player of cheating. This can be avoided if the player waits an hour before starting the game. The game stores an internal clock value each time a file is selected, and if the clock is set to below this value, the game will think something is wrong. This also occurs if the player moves their Memory Card to a different system with a lower date than was previously saved.

For the Nintendo Switch remake, the player is able to fast-forward the in-game clock settings while the game is still running to get multiple prizes at once without needing to save and restart the game. This can be easily abused to eventually acquire the grand prize, at which point the player can then turn back the clock settings to their proper time before Lucky replaces the winning ticket with a new one. In this fashion, the player can completely avoid angering Lucky and all of the associated negative consequences of cheating.

Prizes

Prizes are awarded when a number matches in its exact spot from right to left (will keep checking until all four numbers match or there is a mismatch anywhere, so if the winning number is 1234, 1235 will not win but 5704 will win), and are given by Lucky after checking the winning number, (First time Lottery winners will win badges if they get 3 or all 4 numbers matching the day's lottery; after winning those badges, Zess T. items will be given whenever the player gets either 3 or 4 matching numbers). If Mario's Lottery Ticket's four numbers match up exactly with the lottery board, Lucky will get very excited and give Mario a Lottery Ticket for free replacing the old one until Mario gets another jackpot.

Here are the prizes:

Matching numbers	Prize
All 4 numbers	Power Plus Badge (Lucky Day Badge in the Nintendo Switch remake) or Zess Dynamite
Last 3 numbers	Lucky Day Badge (Power Plus Badge in the Nintendo Switch remake) or a Zess Special
Last 2 numbers	Ultra Mushroom
Last number	Life Mushroom
Consolation prize	Mushroom

Names in other languages

Language	Name	Meaning	Notes
Japanese	ボムへいくじ[?] Bomuhei Kuji	Bob-omb Lottery
French	Bob-ombola[?]	From Tombola ("Bingo") and "Bob-omb"
German	Lott-ombola[?]	From Tombola ("Bingo"), "Bob-omb" and Lotto ("Lottery")
Italian	Totob-omba[?]	From toto- (first element of compound names related to predictions, bets etc.) and Bob-omba ("Bob-omb")
Spanish (NOA)	Lotería Bob-omba[?]	Bob-omb lottery