The 29 lotteries that participate in the Powerball game have voted to make changes that will boost the average jackpot size, but also will boost the odds of winning.
Starting Aug. 29, the beginning jackpot will increase to $15 million from the current $10 million, the Multi-State Lottery Association announced Wednesday. The top prize will grow by no less than $5 million between each drawing.
"Lottery games need to be changed from time to time, to respond to both player demands and population changes," said Randy Davis, president of the Louisiana Lottery Corp. and chairman of the Powerball Game Group.
To boost the jackpot size, two numbers will be added to the first pool in the game, meaning players will choose five numbers from one to 55. The current first draw picks five white balls from a pool of 53.
The Powerball is drawn from a separate pool of red balls numbered from one to 42. That will not change.
The larger number of white balls boosts the jackpot odds to 1 in 146.1 million. The current game has jackpot odds of 1 in 120.5 million.
Ed Stanek, Iowa Lottery chief executive and one of Powerball's co-inventors, said the changes are part of a popular product's evolution.
"Players tell us they expect large jackpots in the game and we will continue to deliver those," Stanek said.
The odds of winning a cash prize in the game will increase only slightly, to 1 in 36.60 from 1 in 36.06, lottery officials said.
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 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.
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.
Quote:Originally posted by JimmySand9 on April 6, 2005
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.
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
Quote:Originally posted by JimmySand9 on April 6, 2005
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.
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
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).
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.
- 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.
I'm glad they didn't.
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).