Although it would be a lottery player’s fantasy to win Wednesday’s $725 million Powerball jackpot, the odds in the multi-state game are stacked against you.
After purchasing a $2 ticket, the overall odds of winning something are a little under 1 in 25 – 24.87 to be exact. You can double, treble, quadruple, or, on rare occasions, quintuple your earnings on non-jackpot prizes by paying an extra $1 to use the Power Play option.
If you’ve never played but are still interested, Powerball operates as follows: Out of 69 balls in a drum, five white balls are drawn. A drum containing 26 red balls is then opened to reveal one red ball. The red ball also goes by the name of the Powerball. Here is a list of the odds and rewards.
Powerball figure
There is a 38.32 to 1 chance that your ticket will match only the red Powerball. Upon success, you receive $4.
Powerball Plus 1 number equals $4.
Even while the odds of matching one number plus the Powerball are higher than only getting the latter (1 in 91.98), the payout is still a pitiful $4.
Powerball Plus 2 numbers equal $7.
To buy a ticket with two numbers and the Powerball is greater than 700 to 1 shot (701.33 to be exact). The reward? A mere $7.
3 numerals, but $7.
You would only win $7 even if your ticket had three out of the five white balls matching. There are 579.76 chances of striking three numbers but not the Powerball.
$100 for 3 numbers plus the Powerball.
The reward money has finally surpassed triple digits, coming in at $100, which is wonderful news. The bad news is that there is a 14,494.11 to 1 chance of purchasing a ticket that matches three numbers and the Powerball.
Powerball awards
Prizes for the Powerball range from $4 to hundreds of millions of dollars.Powerball.com
4 numerals, but $100.
While a ticket with four matching white ball numbers (but not the Powerball) is tantalizingly near to winning a significant sum of money, it is only worth $100. You only have a 1 in 36,525 chance of being lucky, though.
$50,000 with 4 numbers and the Powerball.
If you manage to overcome the roughly 913,129 to 1 odds and match four numbers plus the Powerball, the payout increases to earning $50,000.
According to lottery authorities, two players who purchased their tickets for Monday’s drawing in New Jersey defied the odds. Both were purchased with the $1 Power Play option and are each worth $100,000. One was sold at Wawa in Wildwood on West Rio Grande Avenue, and the other was sold in Newark at B2 Liquors on Summer Avenue.
5 figures equal $1 million.
The money that can change your life starts at this reward level. If you match the numbers on the five white balls drawn but not the Powerball, you will win at least $1 million. But good luck beating the odds of 11,688,053.52 to 1. One ticket purchased in California and the other in Iowa had five matching numbers in the drawing on Monday.
Powerball + 5 numbers equals the jackpot.
The likelihood of this occurring? 292 million to 1 or more. Although the odds of winning the jackpot in Mega Millions are more than 301 million to 1, Powerball still gives a better chance.
Following the primary Powerball drawing, a secondary Double Play drawing is held with a grand prize of $10 million and a second prize of $500,000. The chances are equal.
The estimated value of the cash option for the Powerball drawing on Monday is $366.2 million. If someone were to win, it would be at least the seventh-largest Powerball prize in history and the eleventh-largest overall.
Since someone who purchased a ticket in Ohio struck the $252.6 million jackpot on April 19, no one has taken home the grand prize, according to officials. 35 draws in a row have passed since then without a jackpot winner.
Three times this year, the jackpot has been hit, including on February 6 when Becky Ball claimed the top prize of $754.6 million with a ticket bought at a Fred Meyer grocery store in Auburn, Washington. Before taxes, the value of the cash option for the drawing was $407,204,980.43.
The lucky numbers on Monday were 2, 24, 34, 53, and 58. The Powerball number chosen had a Power Play of 2X and was 13.
The drawing will be broadcast live on WABC-7 in New York City and Fox 29 in Philadelphia at 10:59 p.m.