PowerBall is one of the most popular lotteries in the US and around the world. There are nine ways to win one of eight prizes. The minimum jackpot starts from $40,000,000 and it increases after each drawing it was not hit. The second largest prize is $ 1,000,000, but it may be $2,000,000 if the Power Play option was activated at purchasing the lottery ticket.
A fantastic multi-million-dollar jackpot is the wish of all lottery players, isn’t it? That's why Powerball tickets are selling to players in the US, Canada, Europe, Australia and around the world. The moment you start playing this lottery you will never stop until you become a multimillionaire!
Considering the popularity of Powerball increases constantly among the players other than the USA, we collected more information about the lottery: its rules, origin, all major jackpots won and much more. You will learn how to play it online in any country in the world if you are not the citizen of the USA!
So, let’s start and try to answer all your possible questions about Powerball!
How to Play PowerBall Online
- Go to one of online ticket purchasing services, TheLotter for example. Choose 5 different "white" numbers between 1 and 69 inclusive, and one Powerball "red" number between 1 and 26 inclusive.
- You may choose a QuickPick ticket instead of the regular Powerball ticket. In this case, the computer will randomly choose numbers for you.
- You may fill out one Powerball ticket by hand and have another ticket as QuickPick to compare results.
- Each lottery ticket costs $3 (not counting Power Play add-on).
The PowerBall Jackpot value varies in each draw and depends on the tickets purchased. The other prizes in the PowerBall lottery are fixed for every draw. All transactions for PowerBall lottery tickets are final and cannot be canceled or changed after the ticket purchased.
Multiply Your Winnings with the Power Play Option
Power Play® is an optional add-on feature that multiplies your prize except for the jackpot in 2-5 or even 10 times. You may choose Power Play option at purchasing a PowerBall lottery ticket and pay extra $3 for each game combination. If you win, your prize be multiplied by the number of Power Play for that current drawing.
PowerBall Payouts
If there is more than one winning jackpot ticket, the jackpot is distributed equally among the winners. The Powerball Jackpot winner can choose one of two ways to receive the prize:
- Annual payments for 30 years and the whole jackpot sum;
- The instant cash out of the prize and about 50% of the jackpot amount depending on the current interest rates.
The winner has 60 days to determine the cash-out method. After that period, it would be chosen for you automatically: you will receive annual-scheduled payments for 30 years.
Powerball Odds and Prize Table
| Match | Odds | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 5 + 1 | 1 in 292,201,338 | Jackpot |
| 5 + 0 | 1 in 11,688,053 | $1,000,000 |
| 4 + 1 | 1 in 913,129 | $50,000 |
| 4 + 0 | 1 in 36,525 | $100 |
| 3 + 1 | 1 in 14,494 | $100 |
| 3 + 0 | 1 in 579 | $7 |
| 2 + 1 | 1 in 701 | $7 |
| 1 + 1 | 1 in 91 | $4 |
| 0 + 1 | 1 in 38 | $4 |
Power Play Multiplied Prize Table
| Match | Your prize with Power Play activated (odds) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| #2 (1:79) | #3 (1:3.31) | #4 (1:14.33) | #5 (1:21.5) | #10 (1:43) | |
| 5 + 1 | Jackpot | Jackpot | Jackpot | Jackpot | Jackpot |
| 5 + 0 | $2,000,000 | $2,000,000 | $2,000,000 | $2,000,000 | $2,000,000 |
| 4 + 1 | $20,000 | $100,000 | $150,000 | $200,000 | $500,000 |
| 4 + 0 | $200 | $300 | $400 | $500 | $1000 |
| 3 + 1 | $200 | $300 | $400 | $500 | $1000 |
| 3 + 0 | $14 | $21 | $28 | $35 | $70 |
| 2 + 1 | $14 | $21 | $28 | $35 | $70 |
| 1 + 1 | $8 | $12 | $16 | $20 | $40 |
| 0 + 1 | $8 | $12 | $16 | $20 | $40 |
Powerball (USA) is the Most Popular Lottery in the World, But Why?
Powerball is the leader among world lotteries for more than 20 years, and there are many reasons for it.
Lottery jackpots always were amazing, but in early January 2016 the excitement around the lottery drawing was unprecedented because the main prize reached $1.6 billion in just a few days! Tickets around the world were sold for hundreds of millions of dollars! People asked in stores, lottery kiosks, at gas stations — wherever for a Powerball ticket. Despite the cold January weather, people stood in queues for hours for a chance to win the super-jackpot.
Thousands of players from neighboring Canada came to play Powerball in the USA! But players from Asia, Europe, Australia, Africa didn’t have the opportunity to come to the country personally, so they bought tickets online. Buying a Powerball ticket online and to take part in the lottery draw is a real, and legal opportunity. It is easy for all our customers and they repeatedly become winners of cash prizes from all the best lotteries around the world, including Powerball.
Powerball History and Origin
In the not so distant 1988, MUSL, the multi-state USA lottery association, consisted of only six states and Washington, and its first lottery was Lotto America. The initial format of the lottery was 7 out of 40. In the other American lottery drawings, you had to guess 6 numbers from a certain pool of numbers in order to win the main prize. Sometime later the lottery format was changed to 6 out of 54. So, the odds for winning the Lotto America jackpot were then the lowest: 1 to 18,000,000, while under the former format (7 out of 40) the odds were much higher — 1 to 13,000,000.
MUSL invited other states to cooperate to attract more players to the game. And in 1992 the lottery was rebranded to Powerball. They used two reels, so that increased the jackpots significantly and other prize categories. Such innovations guaranteed minimal wins even to those players who correctly guessed only one number. Later, such a system was adopted by other lotteries: Mega Millions, EuroMillions and EuroJackpot.
During the following years, the routine was improved and optimized. More states joined MUSL and now you can buy a ticket and play the lottery practically in any state. The Powerball popularity became greater, and it is still growing!
The Two Biggest Jackpots of Powerball: 2016 and 2017
Some people are lucky. 53-year-old woman from Massachusetts won 758.7 million dollars: Mavis Wonzick worked for many years in a hospital, after she learned about winning a huge sum she decided to leave her job. Thus, Mavis Wonzick beat the 2013 record, when the largest sum won by the sole winner was received by a pensioner from the State of Florida: 84-year-old Gloria McKenzie won the jackpot of 590.5 million dollars.
The most fantastic jackpot was of $1.6 billion, which was divided equally among the three lucky ones in January 2016. Those are their names: Marvin and May Acosta (California), Lisa and John Robinson (Tennessee) and Morin Smith (Florida). All three winners decided for the immediate cashout, so, in the end, they got $327,835,000!
Powerball and Mega Millions Compared
It may seem to many that the two largest US lotteries are in constant competition, but this is not the case, with better consideration, it turns out that both lottery giants get on well with each other and interact excellently, especially when it comes to selling tickets.
Still, the lotteries differ, and you could choose better knowing their features and differences.
| Category | Powerball | Mega Millions |
|---|---|---|
| Initial Jackpot | $40,000,000 | $40,000,000 |
| Game Format | 5/69 +1/26 | 5/70 + 1/25 |
| Drawings | Wednesday, Saturday | Tuesday, Friday |
| Jackpot Record | $1,600,000,000 | $1,600,000,000 |
| Multiplication | Powerplay increases the prizes of secondary tiers in 2-10 times (the second tiers prize is doubled) | MegaPlier — increases secondary prizes up to 5 times (including the second-tier prize) |
| Prize Tiers | 9 Tiers | 9 Tiers |
| Jackpot Odds | 1:292223510 | 1:258890850 |
Taxes on Lottery Winnings
If you win over $599, you have to pay federal income tax at the rate of 25%, and the state regular tax — 3.75%.
Taxes are automatically withheld directly from the winnings while they are cashed out. Therefore, all winnings in the lottery over $599 will be credited to the prize account minus the above-mentioned federal and state taxes 28.75%.
5 Biggest Powerball Jackpots
- January 13, 2016 — 1.6 billion dollars. Winners: Marvin and May Acosta (California), Lisa and John Robinson (Tennessee) and Maureen Smith (Florida).
- August 23, 2017 — 758.7 million dollars. Mavis Wonzick from Massachusetts became the sole owner of the biggest jackpot in the history of lotteries.
- May 18, 2013 — 590.5 million dollars. This amount also went to the sole winner, Gloria McKenzie.
- November 28, 2012 — 587.5 million dollars. This prize was shared by two winners: Matthew Goode of Arizona and Cindy and Mark Hill of Missouri.
- February 11, 2015 — 564 million dollars. The three winners shared the prize equally, one of them was Mary Holmes, an unemployed housewife.
Good Luck!
Hope we answered our questions about the Powerball lottery. Now it's up to you to decide whether to play or it not. Still, purchasing a Powerball ticket, you may become the next billionaire and the Powerball jackpot winner!
