Coronavirus strikes again
Today the Powerball Product Group announced it is making changes to the multi-state lottery game's jackpot due to sagging sales caused by the COVID-19 coronavirus.
Following the next grand prize win, Powerball's starting jackpot will reset to a guaranteed $20 million (annuity) with minimum roll increases of $2 million between drawings.
Previously the starting point was $40 million, with guaranteed $10 million increases between drawings that did not produce a jackpot winner.
"Powerball players in many U.S. lottery jurisdictions are under shelter-in-place orders or recommendations from their governors or mayors, which has affected normal consumer behaviors," Bishop Woosley, director of the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery, said. "Just like other enterprises around the world that are making adjustments, the lottery industry is making proactive changes to continue to offer the world's premier lottery product."
Tonight's advertised jackpot is a guaranteed $150 million; $114.8 million cash value. If the jackpot is won in tonight's drawing, the jackpot will reset to a guaranteed $20 million (annuity) for the Saturday, March 28 drawing with minimum jackpot roll increases of $2 million between drawings. If the jackpot is not won tonight, then the jackpot will grow to an estimated $160 million (annuity).
Powerball tickets are $2 per play. Drawings are held every Wednesday and Saturday at 9:59 p.m.
😂😂😂😂😂
LOL
what is Mega Millions waiting for ?
Is that the way you gonna play huh? Well, how about dropping it to $1 a line as well. Or $2 a line, but pick from 50 balls from one barrel & 10 mega balls. Fair is fair.
I agree, you want to start at a smaller amount but want $2. I hope both lotteries reach a billion by May
MM has went up only 6 million. I'd imagine PB would do the same.
It won't just be reduced sales... there is also the matter of how much cash they have to front up with for those $10m increases or $20m start...
The ratio of cash value to announced jackpot has hit 80% (three draws ago.. Jackpot $120m cash $96.1m -- 80.8% of jackpot.)
Meanwhile, the Jan 13, 2016 draw.. jackpot of $1,586.4 million.. cash value $983.5m is a rate of 62% (@62% $96.1m cash would dictate a jackpot of $155m)
@62% $40m start needs cash of $24.8m
@80.8% $40m start needs cash of $32.32 ($7.52m more)
Would love to see it hit the billion mark ... but highly unlikely by May
but maybe by the later part of July at the rate things are going
Sales are probably down because it's so freaking hard to win a prize.
I must admit the recent cash payout has been generous.
Cash value is based off the 30 Year treasury rate. Right now the 30 year rate is near historic lows. That is why the cash value is so high.
How so ?
I thought cash value is based on the cash on hand after expenses of the game
They have been making the games worse and worse and they had been looking for a convenient excuse to make them worse yet...bingo they got lucky and found one.
Powerball and MegaMillion have not been good for at least 5 to 7 years.
Next step is for them to find a way to get a multi-trillion dollar jackpot that nobody wins except once every 30 years.
Lower jackpots for an impossible odds game will surely help sell more tickets.
It would interesting to see what happens after the COVID crisis is over. I haven't bought a powerball ticket in 6 or 7 weeks so it won't change my habits anyway.
Ain't that the truth!
I too have stopped buying tickets for these games. Right now I'm going to wait until April to see if my state runs the planned raffle. If so I will buy tickets for that. But I don't know when I will go back to playing PB and MM.
"making changes to the multi-state lottery game's jackpot due to sagging sales"
How will lowering the jackpot create better sales?
Just wondering.
So instead of decreasing the ticket price or improving the odds, they've opted to make the jackpot less appealing to John Q Public. Yeah, makes perfect sense
Self isolation. It might be better to not play at all. Don't risk the lives of your household for non-winning lottery tickets, be ultra safe.
Stay home people!
And this change certainly didn't entice me to buy a ticket....lol
cash value is (I assume) based on "cash on hand".
The annuity value (aka "the jackpot") is what they can buy with the cash value.
My records seem to indicate that the cash value is actually increasing (last cycle (when the jackpot got above $160m) next is worth $171m, with a cash value of $116.2m...
$116.2m is less than the current ($160m jackpot) cash value of $122.4m.
In last night's Power Ball drawing there were no jackpot winners, so the annuity amount does go to $160 mil.
There were two tickets that matched 5 of 5 without the PB # for a $1 mil prize and two tickets that added the Powerplay and won $2 mil.
The two tickets without the Powerplay were sold in Colorado and the two with the Powerplay were sold in Oregon.
I wonder if each of the two tickets were purchased by the same person.
Some people buy the same set of numbers twice so if there are multiple winners they would receive two shares of the jackpot.
Stay safe people!
I believe the Power ball /Mega millions should be replaced' for a Yearly Raffle, like EL Gordo(The fat one$$)...with a guaranteed 400,000 winners.
Im not longer interested in playing the Powerball' until they reduced the wager price to $1 buck per line.
One from Georgia with powerplay, and one from Oregon with powerplay.
On the NYS Lottery website https://nylottery.ny.gov/powerball/past-winning-numbers it shows:
DRAWING RESULTS
DATE
WINNING NUMBERS
POWERBALL
POWER PLAY
03/25/2020
05-09-27-39-42
16
X2
POWERBALL + NO POWERPLAY
0 winners of $150 Million.
2 second-prize winners of $1 Million. Winning tickets sold in CO.
PRIZE LEVEL
NUMBERS MATCHED
PRIZE
NY WINNERS
POWERBALL + POWERPLAY
2 second-prize winners of $2 Million. Winning tickets sold in OR.
PRIZE LEVEL
NUMBERS MATCHED
PRIZE
NY WINNERS
Hmmmmm.
I had just checked on USAMega.
It's possible the NYS Lottery site is wrong. I'll go with the results on https://www.usamega.com/
Thanks RC