Powerball Lottery
14th May 2008 9:43 PM
Powerball, prior to its launch in the USA, was known as Lotto America, but the game (and its name changed) on 19th April 1992. As someone who usually plays only the National Lottery, Powerball seems quite complicated in comparison. The game has had a few changes to it since its origins with multipliers (PowerPlays) being introduced in March 2001. Variations of the Powerball game, Hot Lotto and Wild Card 2, are played in some of the other jurisdictions of the MUSL but for smaller jackpots.
How to Play Powerball
At the moment Powerball is played at a cost of $1 for which a player must pick 5 numbers between 1 and 55 and then one more number between 1 and 42, this is the Powerball number. If players choose to they can pay an extra $1 which brings the PowerPlay feature into play. The PowerPlay feature is a random multiplier which is chosen by the spin of a wheel. This random multiplier applies to any ticket with PowerPlay initiated but is not applicable to the jackpot.
Below is a table of how the game has changed in its requirements of numbers to choose from and PowerPlay multipliers. The information was taken from Wikipedia.
| Date started |
5 numbers from
|
1 number from
|
No. of Powerplay Multipliers
|
| April 1992 |
45
|
45
|
N/A
|
| November 1997 |
49
|
42
|
N/A
|
| March 2001 |
49
|
42
|
1-5
|
| October 2002 |
53
|
42
|
2-5
|
| August 2005 |
55
|
42
|
2-5
|
The overall odds for winning a prize when playing Powerball jackpot 1 in 36.61 but take a look below for the full odds:-
| Match | Pays Out | Chances of winning |
| 0 numbers + Powerball | $3 | 1 in 69 |
| 1 number + Powerball | $4 | 1 in 127 |
| 2 numbers + Powerball | $7 | 1 in 745 |
| 3 numbers | $7 | 1 in 291 |
| 3 number + Powerball | $100 | 1 in 11,927 |
| 4 numbers | $100 | 1 in 14,254 |
| 4 numbers + Powerball | $10,000 | 1 in 584,342 |
| 5 numbers | $200,000 | 1 in 3,563,609 |
| 5 numbers + Powerball | Jackpot |
1 in 146,107,962 |
If you are lucky enough to win the jackpot on Powerball you then have two choices; you can be paid a single lump sump payment or receive the annuity payments. With a minimum jackpot payment of over $15 million that would mean 30 payments over 29 years. This isn’t a choice players have to make when purchasing a ticket, only if they are lucky enough to win. Annuity payments always hold the highest cash value.
Apparently there are yet more changes due to how Powerball is played as it is reported that MUSL don’t believe that Powerball is creating enough $100 million jackpots.
May 3rd 2008 saw the most recent successful claim for a 9 figure Powerball jackpot prize with a ticket that was purchased in Waseca, Minnesota which was worth approximately $180.1 million (annuity value)!! The biggest win to date was with a syndicate of 8 women, all workers for a tax collectors office, who won $276.3 million (annuity value) on 15th March 2008. The group decided to take the cash option with a value of $139 million.
Page Last Updated: 30/06/2008 10:18:11
