Powerball Jackpot Raised AGAIN

The estimate for Wednesday’s Powerball jackpot has been raised again, with the prize currently set at a world-record $1.4 billion annuity, $868 million cash option. And with strong sales in Iowa and across the country, it’s likely that the final jackpot amount will be even higher.

EXPLANATION OF THE WORLD-RECORD REFERENCE

Powerball’s current jackpot is the biggest lottery prize ever offered in the world that can be won with a single ticket.

It is extremely difficult to make comparisons between lottery games around the world, as game designs, sales periods and types of prizes vary greatly from country to country.

For example, Spain’s Christmas lottery, nicknamed “El Gordo,” or “the fat one,” distributed $2.4 billion in prizes last month, with the top prize of $811.2 million in that drawing split among 1,950 tickets. In 2011, the top prize in El Gordo was $960 million. But players buy tickets throughout an entire year for El Gordo, and prizes are split amongst a large number of tickets, so that no individual reaches the $100 million level. El Gordo’s top prize in 2011 was split among 1,800 tickets, giving winners $533,000 for their $26 ticket.

The Powerball jackpot can be won with a single ticket or split among multiple tickets, depending upon the outcome of the random drawing.

SHOULD THE JACKPOT AUTOMATICALLY BE SPLIT?

When the jackpot really gets up there like it is now, the Iowa Lottery does hear from folks who say that the jackpot should automatically be split up at some level, as the current amount is just too much for one person.

While the person making the comment may have that viewpoint, Powerball sales do not reflect that perspective. The higher the jackpot goes, the higher sales go. And the higher sales go, the higher the jackpot climbs. It appears that people are voting with their pocketbooks on this one...

QUIRKY THINGS WE’RE SEEING IN IOWA TODAY

With this being the first time that a jackpot that has topped the $1 billion mark, it’s causing some minor complications in the field for the Iowa Lottery. For example, the lottery has lighted signs in many retail locations that display both the Powerball and Mega Millions® jackpot amounts. Those signs are only designed to display amounts in the millions of dollars, so until the Powerball jackpot is won, the amount displayed for that game will be $999 million.

In addition, the lottery also has a handful of billboards around the state that focus on just the Powerball jackpot. Like the lighted signs in retail locations, the billboards also are designed to only display amounts in the millions of dollars. They will continue to display a Powerball jackpot amount of $999 million until the jackpot is won and the game’s starting jackpot amount of $40 million would apply for the next drawing.   

YOUR ODDS DON’T IMPROVE BY BUYING INDIVIDUAL TICKETS

There appears to be an erroneous rumor underway that you will have better odds if you buy individual Powerball tickets. Some stores are seeing customers requesting large numbers of tickets with just one play on each ticket. Doing that does absolutely nothing to improve your odds of winning – not to mention you will hold up traffic in the store and needlessly run through a lot of paper.

The odds of winning in Powerball are the same for each play purchased in the game. The odds do not change with the number of tickets purchased or the type of plays made. Here in Iowa, players can buy up to 10 plays on each ticket.
 
THE LATEST COVERAGE ESTIMATES

The odds of winning the jackpot in Powerball are about 1 in 292.2 million because there are about 292.2 million ways you can combine the numbers in the game to make a play. By tracking sales, lottery officials can estimate how many of the possible combinations will be purchased for a particular drawing. The latest estimates are that about 80 percent of all the possible combinations will be purchased for Wednesday’s drawing.

 

Comments

[Mary Neubauer]

Hi, Mark. Thank you for being an informed player! You are correct that Pick 3 and Pick 4 have more ways to make plays in them than do some of our other numbers games. One suggestion I always have is to use a play slip in your purchase, as you can clearly mark on the play slip what plays you would like and then the lottery terminal automatically generates the play(s) specified by your play slip. With everything that retail staffers are tasked with handling these days, I don't think we can expect them to be lottery experts. Thanks again for playing and for coaching folks in the field.

[Mark Chandler]

Regarding Plays vs Draws:
Try to ask for a Pick 3 or Pick 4 play! You would be surprised to know how many clerks DO NOT EVEN KNOW that these are available. I've gotten to where I can talk a clerk through a ticket purchase without seeing the terminal at all.

And to compound things, for whatever reason the Iowa Lottery decided to REVERSE the position of the Plays and Draws- what would normally be the number of plays is where the number of draws are on Pick 3/4. Almost guaranteed to mess up a ticket if you ask for 5 plays... you will get 1 play for 5 draws. /rant over :-)

[Mary Neubauer]

Thank you for doing that, Douglas. We've been sending out message to all lottery terminals here in Iowa this week with reminders about how to utilize the Play 'Em All function to print tickets. Our sales representatives also are giving retailers refreshers about that during their stops. We hear you and we're trying to help. We're glad you play the lottery.

[Douglas Cling]

And if you want to get a real "deer in the headlights" look, just ask for the "Pick'Em All" option. I don't do it very often, but the times I've tried I have never had a clerk that understood what I was asking for or been able to fulfill my request. So, I just filled in the bottom side of some play slips to cover that option and selected Computer picks on the topside.

[Douglas Cling]

Regarding requesting multiple individual single play tickets as opposed to multiple plays on the same ticket, while it might not apply to Powerball, once long ago in the old Iowa pick 6 lotto I matched 5 of 6 twice on the same ticket that had five plays on it. The retailer could not pay me because that was considered a $1,000 winner instead of two individual $500 winnings, and exceeded the $600 they are allowed to pay out, so I had to drive to a regional lottery headquarters, fill out a claim form and have withholding taken out of my winnings. So I was kind of frustrated about that and was considering only buying single tickets at a time even when doing multiple plays.
Another reason to only have single tickets instead of asking for 5 or 10 on a play slip is that frequently when I buy a Hot Lotto ticket they will screw up and give me one play for 5 draws instead of 5 plays for one draw. For some reason this only seems to happen when I buy Hot Lotto and not Powerball or Mega Millions. I suppose maybe because that game isn't as commonly played. But I had complained about it in the past to lottery headquarters and was assured that the screen is the same. Ironically this just happened to me again last Saturday when I asked for 5 Hot Lotto tickets at the HyVee on Douglas in Urbandale when I was also buying my Powerball tickets for that Saturday drawing.