Powerball Lottery

The Powerball Lottery is one of America’s biggest multi-state lotteries that is played in 44 jurisdictions across the USA. Players taking part in the lottery have to select five numbers ranging between 1 and 59 plus one Powerball number ranging between 1 and 35. Each week there are two Powerball draws taking place every Wednesday and Saturday and the minimum jackpot offered on this lottery is $40 million.

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A player has to match all five Powerball Lottery numbers and the extra Powerball number to win the Powerball lottery jackpot which makes the odds of winning 1 in 175,223,510. Because the odds of doing this are so great the Powerball Lottery regularly generates massive Powerball lottery jackpots. Luckily there are plenty of other prizes to be won too by matching less numbers; the table below illustrates these jackpots and their odds:

The odds of winning any Powerball prize are 1 in 31.84 which is an improvement over the odds of winning the Mega Millions lottery that stand at 1 in 40.

Powerball Lottery jackpots

Whilst taking part in the Powerball Lottery players have the option of taking advantage of a Power Play feature which multiples any none jackpot Powerball Lottery prize dependent on a number that is randomly generated during the draw. This feature increases the cost of the Powerball Lottery tickets but gives players the chance of winning greater prizes. In addition to this any Powerball Lottery player who has purchased the Power Play option and matches the five main numbers will instantly win $2 million, double the prize money offered for non Power Play winners.

The biggest every Powerball Lottery jackpot was $365 million and was won by an eight person lottery syndicate from Nebraska on the 18th February 2006. On the 21st April 2010 Chris Shaw used his last $20 to purchase a Powerball Lottery ticket and scooped a $258 million jackpot which is the 10th biggest Powerball jackpot in lottery history.

Powerball and other Lotteries

Before 2010 American states had to choose between running either the Powerball Lottery or the Megamillions lottery but all this changed in 2010 with most states now being able to offer both. The first state to produce a winner in both lotteries was New Jersey. When looking at lotteries outside of the USA both Italy's Superenalotto and Europe’s Euromillions both regularly generate huge rollover jackpots.