Power Balls was the first lottery game to use two drums to pick winners. It came out in 1992 and took the place of Lotto*America. The white balls (for which the lottery is named) are housed in one drum, while the red Powerball (from which the lottery takes its name) is housed in a separate drum.
Powerball’s progressive jackpot grows with each unsuccessful drawing and several lesser cash rewards.
How It’s Drawn
There are three weekly lottery draws. Prizes are awarded at 10:59 p.m.
Eastern Time on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays. Florida Lottery draws held in their draw facility in Tallahassee. The winning numbers are published in newspapers, television, and the Internet.
Players must match the five white balls and the red to win the jackpot. Not every drawing will result in a jackpot being won. A jackpot not won in a given drawing will carry over to the next one and grow in size until the winning numbers are guessed correctly.
The size of the prize is typically capped because of this. People are more likely to buy tickets when the jackpot is high, leading to a higher proportion of all potential number combinations being sold. It’s unlikely that a raffle will eventually go off without a lucky winner.
After a $40 million initial price is offered in the lottery, the jackpot increases by at least $10 million if it is not won within a specified period. The pot has the potential to and frequently does, reach several hundred million dollars. The 2021 price was the highest, at over $1.5 billion.
However, it isn’t just about big money. Aside from the jackpot, cash prizes ranging from $4,000 to $2,000,000,000 are given away in each drawing. The prize pool for each picture is based on how many correct entries there were and whether or not the PowerPlay upgrade was bought.
Describe the procedure for using PowerPlay.
Any reward you earn for matching fewer than five balls will have its value doubled by a number between two and five if you select the PowerPlay option. A tenfold multiplier will be applied to the price if it is less than $150 million.
PowerPlay alters how much you win for matching 5 or 6 balls. If you match five white balls but not the PowerBall, you always win $1 million, but if you choose PowerPlay, that amount is automatically quadrupled to $2 million. There is no effect from the other multipliers.
It doesn’t matter if you buy PowerPlay or not; the jackpot remains the same no matter what. Jackpot rewards are always paid out in full, never multiplied.
What is the procedure for playing?
It is a lottery with two separate drums—sixty-nine white balls in one and 26 red balls in the other. There is just one red ball in the pot: the jackpot.
When you buy a lottery ticket, you’ll pick six numbers: five from the first drum containing white balls and one jackpot number. The red balls in the secondary drum will be the lucky jackpot selection.
Pick your jackpot numbers or use Quick Pick to have them selected at random.
What About the Order of the Numbers?
No matter what order you pick your first five numbers in, your chances of winning the Powerball are the same. Even if the winning numbers are 17 (9), 1 (3), 13, and 6, you will still take home the prize if you play those numbers.
However, to win the jackpot, you must choose the lottery correctly. Therefore, in the scenario above, you would not win the bank if the winning numbers were 17 (9), 6 (3), 13, and 1 (1). However, if you successfully match five white balls, you will be eligible to win a cash award.
