Powerball Enhancements Coming Soon
In April, the 29 lotteries that operate America’s Game, Powerball, voted to make changes to the nation’s first big jackpot game to meet players’ demands for larger and faster growing jackpots.A visual explanation of the changes (in Flash format) can be found here.Matrix ChangeEffective August 28, in order to increase the average jackpot size, two white ball numbers will be added, changing the jackpot odds to 1 in 146.1 million. The current game has jackpot odds of 1 in 120.5 million. The overall odds of winning a cash prize will remain virtually the same at 1 in 36.60 (up slightly from 1 in 36.06).Beginning with the August 31 drawing, the white balls will be drawn from a field numbered 1 through 55.The red powerball will still be drawn from a field numbered 1 through 42.Larger Minimum JackpotOne of the most exciting changes will be in the amount of the starting jackpot, which will jump from the current $10 million to $15 million and will increase by no less than $5 million for each drawing. The annuity option will also be changed so that players will receive an annual payment that increases each year--projected at 4 percent. Players can also still elect to receive the jackpot as a lump-sum cash payment.Match Five PrizeAnother improvement to the game will be to double the second prize for matching five white ball numbers; from $100,000 to $200,000 in cash.Match Four Plus One PrizeThe third tier prize will also double. That means that matching four of five white ball numbers and the red powerball will be worth $10,000.Power PlayThe Power Play option gives players the opportunity to elect to spend an additional dollar to multiply their non-jackpot prizes by two, three, four or five times. The multiplier number is drawn before the Powerball numbers each Wednesday and Saturday. Under the new format, the Power Play number will be drawn from a field of 16 numbers: 2,2,2,2,3,3,3,3,4,4,4,4,5,5,5,5.With the purchase of the Power Play option, players will have the opportunity to multiply their non-jackpot winnings by as much as five (5) times to win up to $1 million.Multi-DrawWhen the changes take effect, Nebraska Lottery Powerball players will able to purchase multi-draw tickets for up to 12 weeks of (24) drawings. This feature is being expanded from the current 5-week maximum.BackgroundLottery games need to be changed from time-to-time, to respond to both player demands and population changes. These changes will bring to the game the larger jackpots that our players expect, and the chance to increase the number of big prizes by creating many more $1 million winners.This is the fourth design for the best-known multi-state jackpot game since it was created in 1992. The last change was in October 2002.These new changes will take effect August 28, and the first drawing under the new format will be held on August 30.The Nebraska Lottery began offering Powerball in July of 1994.There have been eight Powerball jackpot winners in Nebraska since 1994:Lyle and Dianne Fleharty of Hastings$50.1 million, July 30, 1994Connie Daily of North Platte$50.5 million (split $101 million with an Indiana winner), November 30, 1994Donald and Rita Polak of Prague$8.1 million on April 19, 1995Greg Klein of Milford$2.5 million (split $5 million with an Indiana winner), April 24, 1996Richard and Iris Johnson of Ayr$18.5 million (cash option on $33 million), November 28, 1998Marilyn and Charles Anderson of North Platte$2.54 million (cash option on $10 million split with a Kentucky winner), November 3, 1999Shirley Brewer of Omaha$7.5 million (cash option on $14 million), August 26, 2000Steven Herber of Omaha$5.6 million (cash option on 1/3 share of $30 million, also won in Arizona and Pennsylvania), December 22, 2004
Published on 08/10/2005