Powerball Lottery

Powerball is one of the two “big” multi-state lotteries in the USA (the other being MegaMillions). It started in 1988 as Lotto America, and became known as Powerball in 1992. It is currently played in 42 states and also in Washington D.C. and the US Virgin Islands. Florida will be added to the list of participating states from January 2009.

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How to play Powerball

The Powerball game is played twice a week on Wednesdays and Saturdays. To participate, players must select five main numbers from the range 1 to 59 and one Powerball number from the range 1 to 35. The jackpot is won by any player who matches all five main numbers and the Powerball. Lesser prizes are also available for those matching fewer numbers, as shown in the table below:

Numbers Matched	Prize Paid	Odds of Winning
5 main numbers + Powerball	Jackpot	1 in 175,233,510
5 main numbers	$1 million	1 in 5,153,632.64
4 main numbers + Powerball	$10,000	1 in 648,975.96
4 main numbers	$100	1 in 19,087.52
3 main numbers + Powerball	$100	1 in 12,244.82
3 main numbers	$7	1 in 360.14
2 main numbers + Powerball	$7	1 in 706.43
1 main number + Powerball	$4	1 in 110.81
Powerball only	$4	1 in 55.40

A Powerball lottery player also has the option of paying an additional fee to select a Power Play number. If the player matches their selected Power Play number then they multiply any non-jackpot win they have. Selecting a Power Play number can therefore boost a $1 millionsecond-tier prize to $2 million!

Big Powerball Winners

When nobody wins the Powerball jackpot, the prize is rolled over and added to the jackpot fund for the next draw. This rollover rule has helped to create some massive jackpots, the biggest of which was worth $365 million. This was won by a syndicate of eight players in February 2006.

The biggest individual Powerball jackpot win so far was worth $314 million and has been paid twice – once in August 2007 to a player in Ohio and once in December 2002 to a player in West Virginia.