By Todd Northrop
The multi-state Powerball game will be changing in October, making it harder to win the jackpot, while at the same time making it easier to win a smaller prize.
With the state lotteries becoming reliant upon big multi-state jackpot games driving ticket sales, the long streak of Powerball jackpots being won before reaching historic levels has crimped state budgets. The October changes are designed to fix that problem by forcing the jackpot to be won less often.
After the changes are enacted, the odds of winning the jackpot — which was a record $590.5 million in 2013 — will increase to 1 in 292,201,338, up from 1 in 175,223,510.
The odds of winning $4? That will improve from 1 in 111 to 1 in 92. The new rules will take effect with tickets purchased starting Oct. 4 for the Oct. 7 drawing.
"The rules change is intended to increase the odds of winning any prize, while making it more difficult to win the jackpot prize," the state Gaming Commission said in a memo to board members.
At its board meeting Monday, the state Gaming Commission approved the changes, saying the modifications will make the game more sustainable. The percentage of money that goes to the jackpot will drop from 68% to 64%, while the percentage going to smaller prizes will increase.
"The proposed rule is intended to increase the odds of winning any prize while decreasing the odds to win the jackpot," said Robert Williams, executive director of the state Gaming Commission.
The move is aimed at boosting jackpots as sales have slumped since 2013, the last huge payout. Overall, the chances of winning a prize will improve from about 1 in 32 to 1 in 25.
"Without these rules changes, the (Lottery) Division would need to remove the Powerball game from its portfolio of offerings and aid to education would be negatively affected," the Gaming Commission memo said.
In Powerball, players purchase tickets for $2 each, and on each ticket players select five numbers from one set and one number from a second set.
The rules change will increase the first set of numbers from 59 to 69, while decreasing the size of the second set of numbers from 35 to 26. The set prize amount for the third-level prize will increase from $10,000 to $50,000.
Powerball sales declined nationally by 19% last year because there was no huge jackpot. The same was true for the drop in Mega Millions sales, the other multi-state lottery, New York officials said.
In New York last year, Powerball sales plummeted 44%, a decline of $217 million.
In February, the state Gaming Commission said the fluctuations in the multi-state games have prompted the state to focus on games with more consistent jackpots.
New York's lottery is "focused on developing and promoting non-jackpot driven games to reduce future dependence on more mature jackpot games and multi-state jackpot games," the lottery said.
Last year, the state launched a Cash 4 Life draw game, which generated more than $100 million in sales in its first six months.
But the state has had some busts over the past year: It ended the New York-only Sweet Millions game because of poor sales and, along with 22 other state lotteries, dropped the multi-state Monopoly Millionaires' Club game after only two months.
Oooo, this is gonna be Great.
We get to test our Power Mega Balls with Three Sum Math on a new matrix.
0 IN 292,201,338 VERSUS 1 IN 292,201,338 TO WIN THE JACKPOT.
"I play only to win the big jackpot, regardless of the odds. I only buy a ticket or two. There is not much difference between 1 or 100 in 292,201,338 but there is a huge difference between those odds and 0 in 292,201,338. In other words not much reason to buy several tickets, just one." RAY
Size of the USA population is 300 Million.
I didn't play much as it is and this doesn't really make me want to play more. I hope people get those big jackpots that they want though.
How do the chances of winning improve by increasing the numbers.
If the Powerball sales plummeted by 19% before the changes ,
they are betting that we bite on the smaller prize increases ,
which do look attractive, will pick up the slack.
It might work.
Hope they don't kill the goose that lays their golden egg.
They reduced the number of powerballs which improved your overall chances of winning a prize, that's how.
RedStamg,
The article states easier to win smaller prizes.
I thank you for sharing what i knew as well. So time will tell. I hope for more who play often win sooner than later.
Let's see first how it all works out. I am going to continue to procure uno... o dos...(one or two)if that. I am winning more doing what i do now with mi pick 3 and or pick 4 regularly at times. I spend more on P-Ball then i realize, only procure 1 sometimes even 2. However, MEGA is only a dollar so i will still play Mega mas en vida! lol adios. i hope you all enjoy your day and be bless with good winnings soon $ and good health most importante adios.
HAPPY WINNING !!!
"Hope they don't kill the goose that lays their golden egg."
That was the point, the goose had stopped laying golden eggs, hopefully big jackpots will return with this change.
Can't wait, how exciting, incredible, amazing, tremendous, etc. etc., NOT.
I take it you're not trying to win a PB jackpot before it gets hard.
YOU WILL NEVER WIN A LOTTERY JACKPOT IN YOUR LIFETIME.
Right now, hubby and I don't buy Powerball until the jackpot gets over $100million. Maybe this change will get us to buy at lower jackpots......
I guess these rocket scientist don't realize that the sales probably dropped due to the $2 per ticket they charge for powerball, when you can purchase a mega million for a dollar.
Well, this is bad news, the state's are running up too big of unmerited contract bills/wages/salaries/construction projects and materials! Why shouldn't these state's be forced by their Governor to cease this irresponsible/hurtful behavior; instead of making each state's on-line gamblers pay for their chronic out of control spending?
This year's Powerball balls re-arrangement also isn't being celebrated by me. After all, Powerball only had 11 jackpots won last year! This year will probably be only 12 jackpots won.
Lastly, not nearly enough 2nd prizes are being won, monthly, in the Mega Millions and the Powerball nation-wide on-line games!!!
"Why shouldn't these state's be forced by their Governor to cease this irresponsible/hurtful behavior; instead of making each state's on-line gamblers pay for their chronic out of control spending?"
Name one state that make gamblers participate in lotteries. Gamblers are victims of their own greed for something for nothing or very little. If the states weren't taking their money someone else would, there's always someone willing to take a gambler's money.
This will backfire, most players are after the JP and couldn't care less about the lower prizes.
How many times do you hear about 2nd prize winners that didn't play the MP ?
And some don't even know there are lower prizes... the casual players that only buy when the JP is outsize,
isn't that who they're trying to attract ?
I was only playing when I could go to Delaware for tix. after the change when I do that it will be MM only.
MM having slightly better odds for half the price.
"The odds of winning $4? That will improve from 1 in 111 to 1 in 92. "
You mean we can expect to win back $4 every time we spend $184? I can't believe they're making us wait until October for a chance like that.
Get rid of the stupid game. It's a ripoff @ $2 a ticket. get 4/5 numbers right out of 59...WOW an amazing $100.
Play NY 5/39 get 4/5 = $400+. Do the math. Which would you prefer?
PB payouts are ridiculous same with Mega. I hit 4/5 on Mega last year and won a whopping $152. It's all BS payouts on these large games. The reason they keep upping the ante is because too many are winning.
NY went from 6/40-6/44-6/48-6/54- 6/59. Its all
I realized from playing the lottery for the past year, I selected the wrong game to play.
$4 prize and an increased chance to win it? Keep it. I always hated PB. Didn't they just
change it? Decreased sales might have to do with no high JP but I think it"s more like it's
just a bad game with rotten odds....which will be even more rotten....and rotten payouts.
$2 or $3 per play didn't help their cause either. I'm glad NY showed a drop of 44%, that's
a big state. Too bad they aren't taking the numbers seriously. The change is a joke.
Will there still be a multiplier and is the second prize staying $1 million?
Is there a nice chart somewhere laying it all out?
I will stop being a regular player in October. The jackpot odds are too ridiculous now (haha as if 1 in 175 million isn't). I might have stayed if the second prize was multiplied like it is in megamillions but this new powerball game doesn't sound fun to me.
NY went from 6/40-6/44-6/48-6/54- 6/59. Its all
OH had 6/40,6/44,6/47,6/49+1,6/100 before deciding 6/49 was just right.
I stopped playing when they changed it to $2/ticket and made it harder to hit the jackpot by 2x. I sometimes doubled up on MM instead.
If I want to play for smaller prizes, I can play daily Pick 3 or Pick 4 and win more often for more money. I play the big games only because they are life changers, if you should happen to win. If I don't win, at least I know that my losing tickets help fund someone else having a life changing moment.
Right now, 1 million would be life changing. When it gets up over 20 million, it wouldn't change my life that much more. All I want is to be comfortable, not crazy rich.
They are killing the lottery as far as I am concerned.
I agree!! Powerball is becoming a toilet bowl and I won't ever play again!!
YeeHaa! It had to happen. Of course they should have raised it to 400million to 1 instead of 292million to 1 but its a step in the right direction.
Need a billion dollar pot!
Next up Megamillions ups the ante above 292million to 1. Like bugs bunny says "Of course you know this means war!"
Powerball has lots its mojo I will definitely play more in state games than PB!
As far as I can tell, the criteria for winning a non-jackpot prize will remain the same as it is now.
There are 8 prize divisions(?)
5+0
4+1
4+0
3+1
3+0
2+1
1+1
0+1
At present, I'm told if I match 3 of the 5 numbers drawn from a field of 59 numbers I'll win $7.
However, if I match 3 of the 5 numbers drawn AND the PB, I'll win $100.
In October, to win the same basic prize, I'll have to match 3 of 5 from a field in 69 numbers.
I realize that there will be fewer power balls, but it won't matter if I fail to match 3 of 5 numbers in the winning permutation.
Will someone please explain how winning the new game will be easier.
The greedy folks who are running this game are using changes in how the amount of money is divided up, hoping that
we won't snap on to the fact that regardless of odds, etc, etc, etc, winning 5+0, 4+0 and 3+0 prizes is going to be harder simply because
10 new numbers will have been added to the mix.
This new game is a 'predator' that lottery players could kill by spending their money on other games.
The lottery officials keep working harder and harder to help me save money by not buying tickets.
I play by expectation value and these continuous changes for the worst keep me from playing very much.
You would think with the disaster that the Megamillions approach is turning out to be, that they would have learned their lesson.
They may see a billion dollar jackpot some day, but it will take two years of continuous rollovers to reach it.
They're now seeing it take twenty and change draws to reach $300 million, whereas they used to get there in less than 20.
Sales will continue to be low.
This has actually been brought up (many) times in lottery conferences and so forth. But MUSL blames the larger playing population, not the price.
Will each play of the Powerball go back to $1 or will it remain at $2?
Stays at $2.
Powerball needs more change in October and change back 2 the $1.00 ticket price. If they really want 2 help D little people, please CHANGE back now!
Well I guess I will be buying my usual $3 tickets or $2 tickets for every drawing hoping for the million.-weshar75
I'd be so much happier if they had made it harder to win the JP by increasing only the powerballs. A reduction in the number of white balls would be nice too. Make the 2nd prize odds better. I would think the increase in sales when the JP gets high would more than make up for a few more million dollar prizes.
"will increase to 1 in 292,201,338, up from 1 in 175,223,510."
Same thing to me. If you are lucky you are lucky no matter the odds. What they need to do is reduce the ticket to $1; then I'll buy Powerball. Megamillions all the way for me.
Anyone who buys a powerball ticket after this is an idiot. They already charge 2x the price of Megamills. Odds improvement from 1/111 to 1/92 is no significant improvement. What a scam!
The odds of winning $4? That will improve from 1 in 111 to 1 in 92.
As if 1 in 92 are good odds of a $2 ticket winning $4 (actual $2 win) is something special.
They do this I will just stop playing unless the jackpots are just huge. MegaMillions told this same lie. On the old MegaMillions I frequently used to win something, even if it was a small amount, when they changed it, I have found that I barely ever win anything anymore. Realistically you are probably better off spending that same $2 on a scratch off ticket then the Powerball, even if the jackpot is much smaller.
The difference between the current PB jackpot odds and the odds for the JP coming in October are 116,977,828.
That is one whole heck of a lot steeper odds than stated Pick 6 jackpot games.
But the MUSL knows that they could offer odds only a real chooch would play but people will still play them.
Haymaker? Did you know you can buy Powerball in NJ now? You don't have to drive to DE to get them.
MUSL has put the touch of death on PB. They obviously don't know how to go with the flow. MUSL does not know how to be like water my friend.
Right, it will be easier to hit just the pb but it will be really hard to match any numbers with it.
I just saw this story and HAHAHAHA are they freaking kidding?! There's a reason I cut down significantly on buying Mega Millions tickets and it looks like I'll be cutting down even further with Powerball than I already have from their bump to $2. I haven't been keeping up for a good while but how has the MM odds raise worked out for them?
All the lottery has done for education is allowed states to take their own money out of it and move it elsewhere, effectively negating whatever benefit the lottery might have had and in many cases made things worse, that's of course assuming they're putting whatever money the state gets to education in the first place.
Oh and using the education reasoning, get bent.
This country dont need bigger jackpots,,,we need more winners,,,,dont you get it stupid people running these Lottery places geez.Give us a weekly raffle,more winners,we dont need 100 Million dollars to one person...
For me I don't care that they made some of the smaller prizes easier to win. Most people I know, including me, don't play PB or MM for the lower prizes. The fact that they made it way harder to win the jackpot and second prize really sucks. I'm sure most players won't care, but this isn't going to encourage me to play more.
golfer1960, How ya been ?
I go to Delaware for the big $ games B/C it's anonymous, to far for you but it takes me 3 hrs. round trip.
Still play the Pic6 & JC5 here in "The Garden state"
If you win 2 Mil or so no one will even notice, but big $, that's a different story.
Your reasoning is why they came up with Monopoly Millionaire. To create more million dollar winners. We saw how that worked out.
I don't like the changes either, but the fact of the matter is that for MM and PB jackpot fatigue is a huge factor and people actually do play more when the jackpots get huge, which hasn't been happening very much.
I play every PB and MM draw. Sure, I would love to hit the jackpot, but I'm also playing for the second prize because they both offer the best shot at a million dollars here in Tx. Our lotto game has odds of almost 26 million to 1 for a few million dollars, which I play also.
The only other way to play for a million in Tx is to play All or Nothing by playing the same numbers 4 times, which is much better odds, but also costs $8 to play that way.
Beautiful...going from 1/175 Mil to 1/292 Mil ??
Goal is to make "it more difficult to win the jackpot"-
"sales have slumped since 2013"
In N.Y.(2014) "sales plummeted 44%"
Nationwide "sales declined nationally by 19% last year because there was no huge jackpot"<--Might call BS on that"no huge jackpot"
2014- 4 jackpots over 200 Million, 2013- 6 jackpots over 200 million, 2012 - 5 jackpots over 200 million, 2011 - 4 jackpots over 200 million, 2010 - 3 jackpots over 200 million
Attention lottery officials---Got a "hot-off-the-press-newsflash for ya"
If you thought sales slumped before, hang onto your britches with this odds change to win the big prize. People do pay attention.
Most folks I talk to, play to win the jackpot, NOT to play for 2nd/3rd or 4th placed prizes. For those that choose to look at the non jackpot prizes odds reduction as a victory, I would agree.
BUT, when anyone sees a billboard or goes to the main page of the MM or PB, the big number splashed on the screen that gets your attention is the annuitized dollar amount, not the cash value, not the consolation 2nd and 3rd place prizes.
They(PB & MM) have already lost my purchases from previous changes.(not buying now until the annuity reaches 100+ Mil). That will probably change to even a higher number with these proposed changes.
I am changing the old statement of "A dollar and a dream" to "Lottery officials you can dream of getting my dollar".
Just my 2 cents..oops..better make it a dime..you know, just in case it slumps and I would need to remove it from my portfolio.
Good! These games are way too easy to win for some. Anything they can do to make them harder is awesome!!!
Thanks Todd for posting this. I remember weeks ago stating this would happen in October, however the Massachusetts lottery did not have the new 'odds' posted in their letter to me. Maybe I'll curtail Powerball too.
I'm doing well haymaker thanks for asking. Fortunately I'm still employed full time despite Obamacare.
I didn't realize about DE being anonymous. I understand now.
Did you have a nice 4th of July? I was at the Oceanfest fireworks in Long Branch. A good time was had by all and the weather cooperated.
Live music all day, delicious fattening foods and girls walking around all day long in their underwear. God Bless America!
I'm sorry I was bitter with mega million when they did the same thing and I leaned on powerball so now I guess I have to just play cash 5 games cause making it harder to win jackpot is a 1%er move never wanting poor to get rich, jut giving us crumbs, so farewell to the jackpot games for me will go for the ones I can actually win
"The proposed rule is intended to increase the odds of winning any prize while decreasing the odds to win the jackpot," said Robert Williams, executive director of the state Gaming Commission.
It's obvious the majority of PB players are purchasing 1 or 2 tickets hoping to win the jackpot or the secondary prize and I really doubt having slightly better odds of cashing $4 will entice them to purchase more tickets.
I totally agree with you stack....I dont see more winners in the lower level will entice people.... The way I play powerball or mega million anymore is I only buy one or two tickets but I put the multiplyer on them to hit the 5 out of 5 on the front end which would pay at least a million plus depending on which multiplyer hit.
Will I change my buying habit with them.... prolly not... I will still buy one or two...there is nothing there to entice me to buy more... I sure aint in it to pay 3 dollars for a ticket for a 1 in 92 chance to win $4 bucks....
Yeah, I see this as another joke on the players...seriously. They're increasing the primary field of numbers to choose from by ANOTHER TEN and allow me to put this into very clear perspective. It's like ADDING ANOTHER PICK 3 FIELD (10 numbers) to an already very difficult game and I don't care how much they reduce the PB field....it's the MAIN FIELD that would get you those increased payouts. The PB number just puts some icing on the cake. No thanks, I'd rather have the actual basic cake with an easier recipe. They know exactly what their doing here.
L.L.