New national game at least a year away
When dozens of states start selling both Powerball and Mega Millions lottery tickets for the first time ever, winners may take home jackpots that aren't so mega.
As part of a deal announced last October, the combined sales begin Jan. 31 in 23 of the 31 states and Washington D.C. where Powerball is currently offered, according to Tom Shaheen, president of the Multi-State Lottery Association that operates Powerball. The two different lottery systems have not been sold in the same state before.
But with all the addition players, Shaheen expects the jackpots to fill up quickly, resulting in more winners but lighter takes.
"With more people playing, you have a better chance of someone winning earlier," he said. "There will probably be more jackpot winners over the course of the year, because you've got more players and more number combinations. That's what players keep saying: They want more winners."
As a result, there will be fewer jackpots as high as $300 million, and more of them in the $100 million to $150 million range, according to Shaheen.
Where to buy
The following Powerball states will begin offering Mega Millions tickets at the end of the month: Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Iowa, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Minnesota, Missouri, North Carolina, North Dakota, New Hampshire, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont, Wisconsin and West Virginia.
New York lottery spokeswoman Jennifer Givner said her state, which sells Mega Millions tickets, will also sell Powerball tickets on Jan. 31. Givner said she could not speak for other unidentified Mega Millions states that will sell Powerball tickets.
Lottery commission representatives in California and Ohio, both Mega Millions states, said they will not be participating in the Powerball cross-over on Jan. 31, but they didn't rule out joining late on.
"We're right in the middle of analyzing whether it would be a good idea to join Powerball," said California lottery spokesman Bill Ainsworth. He said that California already offers a second lottery in addition to Mega Millions, called SuperLotto Plus.
Ohio Lottery spokeswoman Marie Kilbane Seckers said the potential overlap with Powerball is still awaiting approval from the governor and the lottery commissioners.
The return of gigantic payouts
Players with eyes on the larger prize will eventually be able to participate in a national lottery with jackpots that could reach $500 million, Shaheen said.
Tickets for that lottery would cost $2 or $5 each, and would not be available until December or the beginning of 2011.
The current jackpot for Mega Millions is $60 million, with a draw date of Jan. 12. Powerball's current jackpot is $30 million with a draw date of Jan. 13.
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Thanks for posting this article! I wasnt aware of the states that are going to commence the addition of the Large jackpot games.
Its great if you are into choosing a game . I just am a dedicated Powerball player since that is how amy resident state started out. Will be nice to play mega from time to time though and not have to go one state over.... I fear though that my state (PA) will start the taxing of these wins since those will be high revenue for them then....they already are doing so over the gaming (casinos)....
"Lottery commission representatives in California and Ohio, both Mega Millions states, said they will not be participating in the Powerball cross-over on Jan. 31"
I knew it. California wouldn't of course.
I don't care about winning $100 Million+ jackpots to be honest. $50-$60 million is big enough to me.
Me, either. I would happily take it, if I won it, tho. lol
I would rather see 10 people get $10 million each, any day. Heck, I honestly wish powerball was $20 or $30 million every draw, and someone won it everytime. Instead of one person being *filthy* rich, I'd like to see a bunch of people "well off". I feel like I'd have a better chance to be one of them, and a lot of other people that NEED it, too.
Are they leading up to a matrix increase again?????
Jackpot now are the results of the number of tickets sold and states contributing 30% of sales to the jackpot. Unless that formula changes, I don't see why jackpots should be any smaller, in fact they should continue to roll to the same size, just quicker and more often. Facts are with more states participating, the starting jackpot should increase too.
I wish Ohio would sell powerball. I like to play both but have to drive across state lines to do it. Save my gas Ohio.
Same here. Too me, it doesn't matter what size the jackpot is. It could be 20 million or 300 million for all I care, I just want to win!
I'm sure they will join later. I bet when California and Ohio see that the other states have increased their profits, they will change their mind.
That's what you say now that you've never won any lottery jackpot, but if won a $20M jackpot the next drawing after a $300M one had just been won you might be disappointed.
Reason being that if there are more tickets sold in a given time period it is more likely that there will be a winner, rather than have the jackpot roll over.
Thats soooooo True ladyMylenda.
Even If Powerball winners won something like 2 or 3million it would be life changing. I mean depending on your age, if you won lets say 5 mill, you could even retire. Even so, it would be life changing for anyone. Think about it, paying off your house 20 years early (life changing) Putting you kids through college effortlessly (life changing) Even putting it in that bank as your own personal retirment savings is life changing because you can feel safe knowing that you don't have to work until your;re 70 or 80. Since Mega Millions and I have issues, I would love to play Powerball but California killed my dreams on that one. I try to never play Mega: i make my husband play that one cause he seems to have better luck with it. But if Powerball came to Calif, I would not stop playing SLP and definately not Fantasy five, I would just add Powerball to it. Maybe not Five lines but A single line for every draw. $2 is not much but multipe that by thousands of people and it adds up.
I see where this is going.We are going to have a national lottery very soon.
You make a good point, these games do seem to be won after their jackpots roll to a value that attracts a certain number of ticket buyers. With the additional states their jackpots won't need to be that high to attract that certain number of ticket buyers.
What smaller state games are going to get hit if everyone is playing 2 jackpots? the average person only has so much to play with.
The question should be "will the other states increase their profits?" because to play the extra jackpot game twice a week the, players will probably play less on other lottery games. The increased profits come from occasional players who don't play until a jackpot is huge and as the article said the average size of winning jackpots should decrease.
Will more money be spent on both games or will the same amount of money (or even less) be distributed between the two games?
I can't imagine anyone being "disappointed" with a $20 million jackpot.
I happen to think its a great idea. I like large jackpots as well as the small ones. What's wrong with wanting to be ambitious and crave a $300mill jackpot? I mean After Donald Trump and Oprah made their first billion they didn't say "oooooh i think i'm too rich so I will just stop making money"
I live in Pennsylvania. I now currently only play Powerball. When we get MegaMillions I will play that game also. I have no interest in the other games offered by the PA Lottery.
Just waiting for MM !
'Ohio Lottery spokeswoman Marie Kilbane Seckers said the potential overlap with Powerball is still awaiting approval from the governor and the lottery commissioners.'
I sure hope they approve it!
I say the more Jackpot winners, the better for everyone .....!
Ohio might not risk it. They have a crappy state lottery. :( (starts at a million and increases by 100,000) It will suffer if there is another game. I drive to Indiana to play both powerball and the Hoosier lottery. I still buy tickets for the ohio lottery but if I win I may just be a thousandaire. I'd take it though; it would still be life changing.
The extra upside is that winning the 20 mil would barely make more than local news, the spotlight would be on the 300 mil winner.
I think there would be some give and take between MegaMillions and Powerball depending on jackpot levels but I don't think Classic Lotto would take much of a hit. Jackpots are in another class but so are the odds.
told you so. i knew they were going to go to one lotto as soon as they started talking about selling both in one state.
The keyword is "may", not definate.
The jackpot will break its own records for both games. Faster increase of jackpot will result in this.
Unless the game draw is daily, I don't see why it shouldn't be above 200M in 2 weeks roll (4 draws).
Making local news could be bad too, I've had folks who after noticing me buying $20 worth of lottery tickets come up to me with a sob story asking for money.
I will take what ever I can get at this point...$12, $20, $60....$100+ Million.
I'd like to know more about this national game that Shaheen is talking about.
Is he saying his Powerball group is going to run it?
I think the only thing we can count on now is that the matrix is going to be a monster.
I believe the first tickets will be somewhat of a collectors item.
I also tend to think more people will play powerball over mega millions should the
jackpots reset at the same time. This is because Powerball has power play. Just
for an extra dollar and you can increase winnings 5 times? Mega millions will be the slow coach unless...
I wished my state of Louisiana had agreed to participate in MegaMillion, we would have had the two mega lotteries in our state and need not have to run to Texas to buy the Mega Million lottery tickets.
I analyzed your argument and posted a thread in the jackpots forum.
You are actually on to something.
I wish there was a game across all states that we all could have a chance to win,,cant someone out there come up with a game we all could play a win about $50,000 instead of all those millions...
I like that idea TnTicket. I bet there's a lot of other people who do too.
Nah, RJOh, I wouldn't be upset with a $20 million dollar win, even if the next jackpot was $300 million. Honestly, I wouldn't give a crap what the next size of the jackpot was. I would be filled with joy to have won $20 million dollars in the first place.
That's exactly how I feel.
Cool. Now I can play 4 times a week.
Since Mega Millions does not have a megaplier and the starting jackpots are lower, I wonder if Powerball is going to be much more heavily played than Mega Millions.
"I mean After Donald Trump and Oprah made their first billion they didn't say "oooooh i think i'm too rich so I will just stop making money"
So true, but if you listen to many of the billionaires out there now, they say that its not about the money, its about "keeping score". Even The Donald sums it up all the time by saying its about "The Game" or the more famous "The Art of the Deal." For them, it stop being about money many $$$$$$$$$ ago. But for us it is my guess that its about the security that even 5million would do for us since we are all pretty much simple "hard working (or retired) folk".
I'm thinking a player who wins a jackpot will probably only get that lucky once in a life time. Getting that lucky three days later after a $300M jackpot was won and reset to $20M would give one mixed feelings thinking they missed getting $280M by three days or one drawing.
I had a similar feeling last week when I matched three white balls once, matched the mega ball once and match two white balls twice all on different lines on two five dollar tickets. I won nine dollars but I would have been happier if two of those matches had been on the same line. The three and the bonus ball would have paid $150.
Pennsylvania starts Mega Millions sales on January 31st .........
Keep rolling MM, Keep rolling !!!!!!!!!!!!
These guys promised to help me with my financial planning
I am just fine with 300 million $ jackpots !!!!!!!!
I've been to the ctlottery.org website in the past hour, but I don't see anything there about Mega Millions. This LotteryPost story broke the news to me that Connecticut will do "double duty." I read a story here a few weeks ago that talked about the various states that are going to sell both of these games (MM and Powerball); Connecticut was not confirmed/committed at that time.
However, at the supermarket earlier this morning, I did see advertising near the lottery terminal that says sales of Mega Millions tickets begins January 31, AND there will be a Megaplier.
My plans are to play MM & PB for $1 per draw, plus the office pool which starts when a jackpot reaches $50 million.
Pennsylvania will have a Megaplier !