January start date; drawings will move to Florida
Florida Lottery officials on Wednesday said they will add the national Powerball game to the state's portfolio in January and become the new host for the game's semiweekly drawings.
Florida was the only state with a lottery to not offer a multi-state game.
Powerball — the multi-state lottery game known for its mega-jackpots that can top $300 million — is bouncing into Florida lottery retailers in January.
Florida becomes the 30th state to join the game, along with Washington, D.C., and the Virgin Islands. A $1 ticket buys a chance to match five white balls and one red ball drawn on Wednesday and Saturday nights — and a nine-digit payoff.
Eight other combinations also give players a chance to win.
As for winning an instant retirement, you still have a better chance of being struck by lightning, bitten by a shark or maybe both at the same time. The odds of winning Powerball's top prize: one in 146 million.
In contrast, chances of taking the Florida Lotto grand prize are one in 23 million.
The announcement comes at a time of stagnating sales for the Florida lottery. Ticket sales generate $4 billion annually, with most going to education. But state economists recently reduced by more than $150 million the amount projected to go to education over the next two years, citing rising gas prices and Floridians' "weak disposable income growth."
Leo DiBenigno, Florida's Lottery chief, acknowledges that sales at the Lottery's 13,500 retail outlets aren't what Gov. Charlie Crist and department officials want them to be.
"Over 50 percent of our retailers are convenience stores with gasoline stations," DiBenigno said. "I don't know about you, but when I go to fill up my gas tank, I'm not really in a good mood when I'm done."
Florida's Lotto jackpots are enough to quit your job; Powerball jackpots are enough to buy the company.
Already this year Powerball has had top prizes of $97 million, $180 million and $276 million. Florida's payout has cracked the $100 million mark only twice in almost three decades.
Florida's deal with the Multi-State Lottery Association, which directs Powerball, calls for the twice-weekly drawings to be moved from West Des Moines, Iowa, to the Sunshine State. A location has not been chosen.
Players buying tickets at one of the state's biggest Lottery retailers, Food & Lotto in Orlando, cheered the idea of the new game.
"Most people want to win some money, and Powerball — whoa, there's a lot of money involved," said Tony Moreno, 64, a retired New York City policeman. "I could help a lot of people, and I could help myself, too."
Bob Saxour, 56, liked the idea of generating more money for the state, particularly in these rocky economic times.
"It sure beats paying taxes," said Saxour, an Orlando locksmith.
Wednesday's move is not Florida's first pass at Powerball. In 1998, former Democratic Gov. Lawton Chiles approved a contract to bring the state into the game. But his successor, Republican Jeb Bush, rescinded the agreement in 1999.
Bush, no fan of gambling, said he didn't think Powerball would provide a reliable flow of money and might undermine existing games.
Crist, though, doesn't share those fears.
But the move isn't without its critics.
Rep. Frank Attkisson, R-St. Cloud, is chairman of a state House council that oversees the Lottery. DiBenigno testified to the council this spring that Lottery officials had no plans to join Powerball.
DiBenigno says conditions have changed since lawmakers adjourned in May — but Attkisson is livid.
"This is a very arrogant and y approach by a department that appeared before us at least a half-dozen times and told us they had no intention to move in this direction," he said.
The Legislature has fought Crist's efforts to expand gambling — even suing him this year over a deal giving the Seminole Tribe Las Vegas-style table games at its casinos in Florida. A decision by the Florida Supreme Court is pending.
Lawmakers this spring also rebuffed Crist's bid to boost Lottery advertising $5 million and install 1,000 new instant ticket machines to allow buyers to bypass checkout lines. In his budget proposal, the governor said his proposals would boost Lottery revenue $248 million.
And clearly, Crist hasn't given up the hope that gambling will brighten the state's sagging revenue picture, which forced year-over-year budget cuts of $6 billion. The Powerball move doesn't require legislative approval.
Florida Lottery Secretary Leo DiBenigno said Wednesday that times have changed.
"Like any other businesses have to change, we have to adjust to the marketplace," DiBenigno said. "The lottery will constantly re-evaluate its options."
Wednesday night's drawing was for $85 million.
Bennie Orcutt, 53, of Cantonment said he likely will be a frequent Powerball player.
And he knows what he would do should he win.
"I would take care of everything, give the relatives some and disappear," said Orcutt, who has played Powerball in other states.
Robert Dean, 26, of Pensacola said the most he has won playing Fantasy 5 every day is $120, and he will probably play Powerball.
"I just take risks," Dean said. "You never know. When I won that $120 I only had $10 left in my pocket."
sweet!! I know nothing about powerball. How much do the tickets cost??
Powerball tickets cost $1.You can also add the power play option for an additional $1.
I do wonder,though,why they will be moving the powerball drawing from Iowa to Florida.Are there going to be other changes to Powerball that they haven't told us about,yet?Are the drawings still going to be televised "live"?
Obviously the Lottery needs to raise more money. I guess adding the Lotto Plus feature isn't helping too much.
GamerMom - the odds are over 1 in 146M which is several times high than the FL Lotto. Lotto odds are less than 1 in 23 million. However, a lot of people wanted it, so good luck to everyone!
I already spend between $15 and $20 a week on the lottery and trying to cut back, so I'll pass on PB, although it's tempting to try just for the $200,000 prize even though the odds of getting the first 5 numbers are still over 1 in 3.5 million. Then, if you spend an extra dollar, you can win 2,3,4 or even 5 times the prize (not the jackpot) Still, the FL Fantasy 5 odds are less than the PB $10,000 prize and the jackpots are usually around $250,000 although sometimes several people win. Still, odds of just winning the PB $10,000 prize are 1 in 584K and Fantasy 5 only 1 in 377K.
yes, I can't understand why they thought people would get excited about losing 2 or 3 dollars instead of 1. I think the Lotto Plus is the dumbest thing ever to come up with.
So you will have a choice between buying PB and regular lotto? I wasn't sure if it would be PB only come January
Heh, I was hoping they'd eventually go with Mega Millions, oh well if I ever live in Florida again and still have any intention of playing the lottery maybe I'll move close to the boarder with Georgia.
I wonder, how do states choose between getting Powerball or Mega Millions?
GamerMom: Actually the Lotto Plus feature is the smartest thing the Florida lottery has done (aside from joining PB). When I finally got a trip down to Florida, the first thing I did was to purchase an advance play $3 ticket. Perhaps you didn't know that the Canadian lottery tickets are $3, but that is only for the base prize. So I would much rather spend $3 to win the base prize plus an extra $25 milliion. BTW what do you see all the winners who only bought a $1 ticket say when they claim their prize now that the Lotto Plus feature is in play..."next time I will buy the $3 ticket!!! So perhaps you are only speaking for yourself. Fair enough. But I know that if the stars align for me to win the Florida jackpot, I want to win as much money as I possibly can, and the Lotto Plus feature gives me that opportunity...that is all, just the opportunity to win more money. And no one can get mad about that. And in the meantime, when the draws don't match my numbers, I can feel satisfied that I have contributed to the education of Floridian children. But then again, I can see that many of the die hard Florida lottery players are actually retirees or transplants to Florida who currently don't have children in Florida public schools, so I guess they just don't care about that...only themselves and how much they have in the bank to go golfing, cruising, tanning, etc. How selfish.
I wonder if they're moving the whole operations to Florida or just the drawings? Although I prefer living near the mountains I'd surely take Florida flatlands if the move were paid for to escape the Iowa winters!
I'd rather live in Iowa and suffer through the long cold winters than live in Florida and put up with excessive heat,hurricanes,blue haired old ladies by the thousands and millions of people packed into the state like sardines in a can.I don't call that living.
Do you realize you are stereotyping an entire state? There are miles and miles of undeveloped land in FL, thousands of acres of ranches too.
BTW, I have lived here for 14 years and I've never seen a woman with blue hair. I've seen a lot of 20-something girls with tattoos and body piercing however.
Weather: So far this year we haven't had a hurricane and AFAIK no major hurricanes hit last year or in 2006. For your information: In over 100 years there has only been 7 category 4 hurricanes. Is it my imagination or has most of the tragic news lately been about the floods in Iowa?
excessive heat (thinks he watches too much Golden Girls)
LMAO i think that's the only thing you got right. but we have excessive heat here in Alabama. Florida has some of the most beautiful beaches in the world. I won't ever live far from the Panama City Beach area.
Plus...wasn't it IOWA that had some pretty severe weather this year? hrmmmm
To OldSchoolPa - I honestly think the winners who say "next time I'm spending $3" are asked to say that for the press release. The 2 people you are talking about won $16M (with a $2 ticket) and $12M (with a $1 ticket) Seriously, if you won $16 million would you care? I doubt if someone who just won $12 million by spending $1 buck on his family's birthdays is disappointed he didn't win more. The only people I hear that from are posters on this board!
I don't think it's a dumb idea because it generates more money, but I agree with GamerMom about the concept. If you have $3 to spend on a Saturday night and you're going to bet on Lotto, it makes more sense to me to buy 3 tickets and give yourself 3 different chances to win something.
GamerMom - I'm pretty sure they'll keep the Lotto 6/53 game.
I'm in my late 50's and I can't remember a year that Florida didn't make the news because of hurricanes...not one.They might not have been catagory 4's,but they were hurricanes just the same.
Yeah,Iowa had some terrible weather this spring and the flooding in some areas of the state was tragic.But I'd still choose to live in Iowa over just about any other area of America.Most other parts of America don't amount to much more than tourist destinations,in my opinion.Nice places to visit,but I wouldn't want to live there.
GamerMom:
EAT a lot of watermelon's>>>>>Florida is #1 in raising this WONDERFUL
fruit & supplie's most of the 50 state's with WATERMELON'$$$$$$$$$$$
GULL's eat the red meat "ONLY">>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
BUOY's eat the "RINE" only >>> IF YOU "DARE" >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
PSYKO wi$he's >>>>>>>>>>>> ALL of U >>> HAPPY 4th of JULY!!!!!!!!!
LOL
PSYKOMO
The big Canadian lotteries are $2, not $3.
Well there goes the Florida in state game!
There are 29 other states to buy Powerball in so while the sales might spike in Florida for several months(or years) they will calm back down when everyone realizes that they aren't winning and nobody around them is winning and the jackpots are fewer and farther between in Florida.
PowerBall and MegaMillion are really just Jackpot vampires sucking up all the decent size jackpots that you or people around you have a chance of winning and substituting that with bigger jackpots that nobody except people in certain areas ever seem to win.
If people don't have the disposable income to buy in state games then why do they believe that they can afford powerball more than the other offerings?
I will go out on a limb and say this decision eventually wont work as well as they hope.
I smell a matrix change; probably bigger than Mega Millions. Hopefully this will result in a bigger minimum jackpot. $20M perhaps.
Isn't there supposed to be a change this fall? In November or something? I thought I read something about that here a couple months ago.
I e-mailed the people at MUSL about it a couple of weeks ago, and they said that there were no plans. Of course that was before Florida came into the picture.
I really hope there isn't another matrix change. The game is hard enough as it is.
Florida continues to deteriorate. Couple of years ago I was proud Florida
had resisted going to two draws a day for Pick-3/4 and had a lotto strong
enough we didn't have to share with other states. Plus we had a web
site with real information and help.
The best thing about Bush having been governor is we were inoculated against him ever being president.
Crist wants to bail and be vp, easier then keeping his promises.
Powerball will damage our 6/53 which never should have been changed
from 6/49. These lottery directors certainly don't work for us. The claim
people polled wanted bigger prizes doesn't answer whether they also
asked for tougher odds.
Powerball is just a bloated Pick-5 game, helps to look at it that way.
Play it as a Pick-5 and rotate the longest out Powerballs among your
tickets.
BobP
There are those who think if games like MM and PB don't generate a $200M jackpot every other month or so they are too easy to win and won't play them. It never made sense to me but I've even read some post here where people say they won't buy a ticket until the jackpot is over $100M, I guess they don't want to chance wasting a dollar on winning anything less than $100M.
I emailed MUSL yesterday after reading about Florida joining MUSL and the drawings being held in Florida. I asked them if the drawings will be "live" or if they were going to change to RNG drawings.I also asked them if they had plans to change the matrix,which would make the game harder to win.Here is their answer:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"The drawing will be live. The drawing will still use a hard rubber ball
draw machine - though we anticipate getting new machines.
This does offer an opportunity to improve the game. We don't generally
just like changes "to make it even harder to win". We are kicking
around ideas to see what we can do to make the game and the drawings
more attractive to players. We'll see what we can do. "
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
They didn't say if the drawings would be televised.
I would say is was a INCENTIVE to get Florida to join..I would even go as far as to say that FLORIDA ACTUALLY INSISTED that if they joined Powerball that the live drawings be held in their state as part of the deal for them to join..that would be my bet..ALABAMA is going to lose even more money now..because Alabamians can play mega millions or powerball on 3 sides of their state
So now Florida makes number 30 (not counting territories) to Mega Millions' 12. Granted Mega Millions has some of the more populated states but that's still pretty lopsided.
BobP. I agree completely. Give Florida 6 months and they will have every powerball player in the country at their throat.
I am surprised a big state like Florida joined Powerball and not Mega Millions since that seems to be the way it goes. Big states MM smaller states PB. Florida is a huge lottery state. I can't see them not raising the odds. Maybe they will raise the price to $2. I wish both games would do that already and just lower the odds a little. Then it would be an interesting game one that seems to be at least a little attainable to win.
Brad
With all the problems they have had down there with past elections, I wonder how the Powerball drawing will go? I'm not hating on Florida but we all know they aren't very well with elections and counting votes.
I could almost understand the logic of playing the extra buck or two if it added money to the all the prizes but it doesn't and the odds of one ticket matching all 6 numbers is still 24 million to 1. People play pick-3 or pick-4 numbers multiple times to increase the winnings, but there is a huge difference when the odds are 1000 and 10,000 to 1 and much less for the box bets.
When Powerball is added and people see how the multiplier works, I'll bet they stop playing the extra bucks to win a higher jackpot on the lotto.
If it does go RNG it will be another game added to the NO-PLAY list.
What matters is the number of players in each state and if you rank each state by lottery revenue, you'll find the Mega Millions states at the top. When Florida joins Powerball those combined state revenues might favor Powerball but it won't be lopsided.
I don't think that we will see PB going computerized anytime soon or at least I hope not.
If they change PB to a RNG drawing many states will have 0% percent on their state report card.
Yep. One of them would be mine. :/
I
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaatttttttttttttttttttttt! Since I live in Alabama, I will no longer have to travel to Louisiana to but PB tickets. The drive for LA other games is not worth the effort with the high gas prices. I have not played in awhile because of them.
Now then, Alabama or Mississippi needs to become a MM state and that would be just perfect!
Me too. Help us y'all.
congrats to florida
Think:
There are 31 states/ jurisdictions where Powerball is played when Florida joins they will become the 32 state added to the list of many.
Thats a lot of states for one multi state lottery just my opinion. I wish Wisconsin would drop Powerball and go to Mega-Millions. Except for Illinois and Michigan who sell Mega-Millions, everyone surrounding Wisconsin sells Powerball. I like the odds better on Mega-Million anyway.
Wisconsin has there state lottery and because of Powerball our state lottery only goes up by increments of maybe $10,000 maybe. I think it starts out at $100,000.00 and it takes months for it to get to $200,000l.00 so not many players for this one because bad odds I guess and it takes for ever for it to get to a million dollars.
Thank you Mike... so no more long road trips to S.C. four hour roundtrip for a 300 million now I can play for 15 million yes....
I just hope that with Florida joining that the Lottery Officials don't decide to add more numbers to the drawing, increasing the odds. (Like the Megamillions did)
I'm personally looking forward to having Powerball. I used to live in Mass. and live in Florida now, and started playing the lottery here and there. At first, I didn't play much because the jackpots were pretty low and nothing too exciting but when they added lotto plus I started playing more, and started playing three $3 plays twice a week but often wouldn't even get 3 numbers. I felt like i was throwing money away so I haven't bothered participating in the last 2 draws this past week like I normally would. Atleast having powerball would bring some more exciting jackpots and make it less tempting to buy multiple tickets a week. I'm sure there will be a lot of people who disagree because of their loyalty to local games but I'm all for it. If you're gonna do something like buying lottery tickets it should be for something big
I know the matrix is changing for powerball, but why add some many to the white balls and take away from the red powerballs? Why not just add the same amount to both? would that make the odds of winning harder to win... I thought that 42 might be someones favorite powerball number and now that person would lose it... I would have just extended the white balls to 57 and then the red powerball to 44 or 45... would the odds still be close if powerball did this rather than 1 - 59 ( white balls ) and 1 - 39 ( red balls )
The object of the change is to make it harder to get 5+0!
Discusion about the forth coming PowerBall Matrix changes is in this thread:
https://www.lotterypost.com/news/179721