Powerball is one of the biggest lottery Jackpots in the world. This makes the organization between the lottery very proud. It’s no longer the little brother of the MegaMillions. Every week Powerball players are having the chance to win a Jackpots of millions of dollars!
Powerball in the United States
Powerball is already more than 20 years old. It was established in 1992, as a new version of Lotto America. The first Powerball draw took place on April 22, 1992. In the past decades Powerball has conquered the United States. Nowadays you can purchase lottery tickets in about 47 US states where Jackpots of more than 40 million dollars are no exception.
Fantastic starting prize
The amazing Jackpots make participating in the Powerball Lottery definitely worth it. In 2012 it was decided that the starting prize would be 1.000.000 dollars! Good news, because it led to more Powerball millionaires than ever. Perhaps you’re going to be one of them?
One of the other great things about Powerball and Mega Millions is that 50 % of the revenue made by the ticket purchase goes to the prizes. 20 % is meant for the Jackpot, and 30 % for other prizes. The other 50 % goes to the state where the winning ticket was purchased.
Powerball draws
Perhaps the Powerball Jackpot will be yours one day. You should definitely sit down in front of the television every Wednesday and Saturdays at 10.59 p.m. In the evening the draw from a pool of 69 balls takes place. There is also an extra ball involved. Like the lottery, it is known as the ‘Powerball’. You win a big prize when you have five matching numbers and the Powerball. However, the chance on a Jackpot hit is not very high, namely 1 in 292,201,338. So good luck!
Five numbers and the Powerball
Powerball Lottery players have to choose 5 numbers from a 1-69 range. These five numbers are never the same. You also have to choose an extra number between 1-26, which is known as the ‘Powerball’. The extra number gives you the possibility to win even more money. One of the great things about Powerball is that 50 % of the revenue made by the ticket purchase goes to the prizes. 20 % is meant for the Jackpot, and 30 % for other prizes. The other 50 % goes to the state where the winning ticket was purchased. Wait until Wednesday or Saturday evening at 10:59 p.m. to see if you’re lucky.
Double your prize with Power Play
A Powerball ticket usually costs just a few dollars. To increase your chance of winning you could also add the extra Power Play option. It costs one dollar more. Powerplay multiplies prizes and can be compared to the Megaplier of Mega Millions. Power Play is definitely a great option when you’ve won a big prize. For example, in the past it already multiplied 1 million dollars to 2 million dollars, so 50 % extra without doing anything! It’s also a great advantage when you’ve won a small prize. Sometimes it’s multiplied 2, 4 or even 10 times. For example, a basic 4 dollars prize is multiplied to 40 dollars with Power Play. However, there is no multiplier for the Jackpot available. The 10x multiplier is only used when you have a prize less than 50.000 dollars or a Jackpot of 150 millions. If you’ve won a prize like that you probably wouldn’t complain!
Prizes and odds of winning
How more matching numbers, how bigger the win. You even win money if only the Powerball number matches, namely 4 dollars. It’s a good start in your way to become millionaire! These are the prizes and odds of winning during Powerball:
Matching numbers Prize Odds of winning
5 and the Powerball Jackpot 1:292,201,338,00
5 1 million dollars 1:11,688,053,52
4 and the Powerball 50.000 dollars 1: 913,129,18
4 100 dollars 1:36,525,17
3 and the Powerball 100 dollars 1: 14,494,11
3 7 dollars 1:579,76
2 and the Powerball 7 dollars 1: 701,33
1 and the Powerball 4 dollars 1: 91,98
Only the Powerball 4 dollars 1:38,32
Check the results
After the Powerball drawing you can check the results on the lottery website. You’ll have a bit of time to claim your winning numbers by the way. The deadline is one year of the draw. However, the exact time can differ from state to state. The United States doesn’t have a national lottery. All states organize the Powerball Lottery independently, but they do work together sometimes.
Advantages for the states
The fact that the states act on their own also gives them some benefits. For example, they can use the revenue of the lottery as they want. For example, they can use the revenue of the lottery as they want. Schools and other educational institutes benefit the most from this rule.
A very interesting day…
Over the years some exeptional situations have happened at the Powerball Lottery. For example, 110 players were incredibly lucky during the draw in 2005. They had 5 matching numbers, but no Powerball! Too bad, because otherwise they would have been even richer. The Powerball Lottery organization still had to pay an astonishing 20 million dollars to the winners. The funny thing is that the winners number matched a Fortune cookie from a company in New York matched the winning numbers! The company printed six numbers in the fortune cookies and they matched those of the lottery… The cookie predicted that 40 would be the Powerball number. Too bad that the lucky number appeared to be 42, so the winners were just 2 numbers away from being a multi-millionaire…