I said 5/55 + 1/40. They say they going to do 5/55 + 1/42. I was half right.

I like it.  No formula is going to make everyone happy, but this suites me just fine.  It will only take two draws to increase the jackpot to 25M.  An amount that has only been achieved twice this entire year! 

I like the changes and I hope it leads to higher jackpots that powerball has been having lately.

i think it will. now that they are raising the starting jackpot, increasing the matrix (even though they should have increased the number of powerballs to choose from), and increasing the minimum rollover, they should have no problem getting the jackpot back up into the $100 million range.

and it will take only 17 draws (maximum) for the jackpot to get back to $100 million.

I just hope they raise the lower prize amounts. They didn't when they went to the current format.

they will need to do so. winning $100,000 for matching 5 of 55 is way too little for the odds.

O.K. Now this is a "realistic" proposal. Somewhere between a rip-off (PA Lucky For Life) and a complete bank-breaker (doesn't exist).

• 5 & Powerball: Jackpot (Of Course)
• 5 (No Powerball) : $200,000
• 4 & Powerball: $10,000
• 4 (No Powerball): $200
• 3 & Powerball: $200
• 3 (No Powerball): $10
• 2 & Powerball: $10
• 1 & Powerball: $4
• 0 & Powerball: $3

May I also suggest the removal of the Match 5 Bonus Pool which limits jackpot growth to $25,000,000 per draw. Especially now, considering that with PowerPlay multiplier of x5, matching 5 with no Powerball would still net $1,000,000, and that's every draw.

The upcoming powerball change includes increasing the match 5 amount to $200,000.

The press release said nothing about changes to the lower tier prizes.

I thought PB would go for longer odds than 1 in 146 million. At least the starting jackpot and initial increases will be higher.

Quote: Originally posted by CASH Only on April 7, 2005

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...I thought PB would go for longer odds than 1 in 146 million....

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I'm glad they didn't.

Quote: Originally posted by JimmySand9 on April 6, 2005

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May I also suggest the removal of the Match 5 Bonus Pool which limits jackpot growth to $25,000,000 per draw. Especially now, considering that with PowerPlay multiplier of x5, matching 5 with no Powerball would still net $1,000,000, and that's every draw.

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But the Match 5 Bonus has never even been reached. Almost made it twice, but it was hit right before it would have went into effect. Although limits aren't ideal, when you are getting up to $350 Million, I don't think it's such a bad idea. It spreads the wealth around. And goodness, if you can't live on $350 Million vs. say $400 or $450 Million, then you have a serious problem. lol

Quote: Originally posted by smd173 on April 7, 2005

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Quote: Originally posted by JimmySand9 on April 6, 2005

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May I also suggest the removal of the Match 5 Bonus Pool which limits jackpot growth to $25,000,000 per draw. Especially now, considering that with PowerPlay multiplier of x5, matching 5 with no Powerball would still net $1,000,000, and that's every draw.

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But the Match 5 Bonus has never even been reached. Almost made it twice, but it was hit right before it would have went into effect. Although limits aren't ideal, when you are getting up to $350 Million, I don't think it's such a bad idea. It spreads the wealth around. And goodness, if you can't live on $350 Million vs. say $400 or $450 Million, then you have a serious problem. lol

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Keep in mind that I'm trying to find something satisfies the lotteries and the players. And big jackpots mean big excitement for players, as well as big profits for the lotteries. The faster it grows, the more exciting the game gets. Anyway, I could live on $4,000,000 (cash, after taxes) easily.

The current odds of 120m-to-1 are depressing as it stands and odds of 146m-to-1 are rediculous at best.  Even the Mega Millions is better at 130m-to-1 which has been described as infinitesimal by statisticians.  We just got the lottery last year and I was buying 2-20 tickets depending on the pot, but now I will never buy more than a couple at a time and only when the jackpots are 100+ million or I may just play my wife's single number and be done with it.  Other than that I plan to pay more attention to the smaller multi-state lotteries (lotto south) that I have a 10x better chance of winning.  I would much rather participate in a 10-20 million dollar lottery where buying 10 tickets is equivalent to buying 105 powerball tickets.  I hope the powerball officials are not doing this just because the numbers were hit early a few times, because that can happen again at 146m-to-1 and if it does are they going to raise them again.  I don't think the public needs to have 200-400 million dollar jackpots to be attracted to the lottery.  People buy tickets when they see the jackpot is on the high-side no matter what that may be (it doesn't need to be an astronomical amount).