The Powerball Product Group today announced its decision to further modify the rules for determining each successive Powerball jackpot roll, and set a firm implementation date rather than waiting for the next jackpot winner.
Today's changes are in addition to the modifications announced just last week.
The new Powerball rules for determining the advertised jackpot will be based strictly on game sales and interest rates, completely eliminating guaranteed starting jackpot amounts and minimum jackpot increases.
Following the April 8 drawing, jackpot increases will be determined and announced by the Product Group prior to each drawing. Previously, Powerball jackpots started at $40 million (annuity) and increased by a minimum of $10 million (annuity) between drawings.
"These changes are necessary to ensure that ticket sales can support the Powerball jackpot and other lower-tier cash prizes," said Gregg Mineo, Powerball Product Group Chairman and Maine Lottery Director. "Our number one priority is making sure that the Powerball game can continue to assist lotteries in raising proceeds for their beneficiaries."
The Powerball Product Group announced plans last week to reduce the starting jackpot to $20 million (annuity) and minimum jackpot increases to $2 million (annuity) between drawings. Those changes were scheduled to go into effect after the current jackpot was won. However, due to the evolving COVID-19 pandemic, the Powerball Product Group revisited the topic and decided Powerball's advertised jackpot should be determined by game sales and interest rates effective following the drawing next Wednesday.
"Since last week, more states and cities have asked their residents to stay at home, which has affected normal consumer behaviors and Powerball game sales," said Mineo. "In response to the public health crisis, interest rates have declined. As a result, additional game sales are necessary to fund comparable jackpot amounts."
The advertised Powerball jackpot for Saturday's drawing is a guaranteed $180 million. If the jackpot is not won, it will grow to a guaranteed $190 million for the April 8 drawing. If the jackpot is won on Saturday night, it will reset to a guaranteed $20 million for the April 8 drawing and continue to grow based off sales and interest rates. At that point, future jackpot resets will have no minimum amount.
Powerball tickets are $2 per play. Tickets are sold in 45 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. (The Puerto Rico Lottery is currently shut down due to the coronavirus outbreak.) Drawings are broadcast live every Wednesday and Saturday at 10:59 p.m. ET from the Florida Lottery draw studio in Tallahassee. More than half of all proceeds from the sale of a Powerball ticket remain in the jurisdiction where the ticket was sold.
All Powerball drawings, including official drawing video, detailed breakdown of prizes, and exclusive Jackpot Analysis, are available at USA Mega (www.usamega.com), a website devoted to the United States's two biggest multi-state lottery games, Powerball and Mega Millions.
With many lottery retailers shuttered due to the coronavirus, players trying to locate an alternate retailer can use the free Lottery Places app to find all the retailers near them, as well as retailers near any address they enter.
Auf Wiedersehen Powerball with treating loyal players like this. My point is it is not like there is a grand jackpot every drawing. Next thing you know MUSL will put Mega Millions of the chopping block too. Personally would be happier if both just went to one drawing each/week. Lottery fatigue 101.
I like your idea of one drawing per week. I would love to see the matrix lowered, thereby lowering odds and dropping to $1 per draw. They once had a good thing but just had to keep messing with it.
We need to believe we can win in order to buy plays, not just want to win. Perhaps they're missing that big point.
I have a really radical idea.
What if they took a percentage of sales revenue and set it aside and called that money the jackpot prize pool. When somebody matches all of the number to win (a share of) the jackpot the prize would be based on the cash that's in the jackpot prize pool. They could call that cash value a "jackpot".
LOL Powerball. The biggest problem besides the odds is the $2 ticket price.
We have two dueling jackpots competing for limited dollars. Four nights a week. I'm afraid one either PB or MM will not make it if COVID-19 conditions persist. That may be the new normal.
The Governor of Louisiana just announced a mandatory stay in your home until April 30th. So, on May 1st, I don't think everything will be okay, as originally projected by many businesses, & casinos for reopening.
The more I think about it, this means the Powerball jackpot is basically parimutuel, and the minimum jackpot can change at any moment. When the isolation / seclusion to save lives ends, I still don't anticipate I'll be playing the Powerball, or Mega Millions like I once did. Probably just Pick 3, & Pick 4. I anticipate the end of May, but I expect into June, before I'd feel safe venturing out like I normally did to even attempt returning to a normal life. It's too deadly at the moment.
Definitely sounds like a plan ah yes when greed overshadows their thinking. When the state lotteries follow suit they'll have no choice but to rethink how to get the money. I was good on paying a $1 once it went up to $2 I stopped but that's just me.
No no no they have it all wrong. They need to increase the payouts for pick 3 and pick 4 to attract more players. Ha
Sounds good to me.
Who would like to take a bet that there will be a winner for the $180 million on Sat. April 4th?
I would even go as far as to say that the winning ticket will be sold in either Florida, New York or California. The house always win folks! All the more reasons to stick with the tried and true....Pick 3s and Pick 4s for me....all day...everyday! Lol.
Almost all of the United States is not playing the lottery at the moment. I think it will roll until June, or July.
When Powerball made these changes adding more numbers (69) and shortening the powerball numbers (26) they made them on the premise that the jackpot goes higher and higher biggest jackpots back in (2016) and beyond.
Also if they do lower the size of the jackpot, that means they should change the numbers to a much shorter set like before and possibly even go back tp a $1 a wage. Because greed and increasing their coffers will not work usually anytime they ordinarily do a change but given the times we are in, it's higy unlikely they will get a good response from players and be in a lot of trouble down the road when it comes to sales. Mega Millions would likely follow.
So Todd and anyone should be able to float the idea that the odds are bad (should be better) and numbers shorter and wage lower.
That's the only way. In other words, go back to the basics!! They lottery commiisions should be told the phrase it's the economy stupid!! Must adapt and while there at it change the odds. All or nothing at all. They need people and states and complaints and a consortium to at the very least change their ways.
Later on they'll say they're starved of cash, well so is everyone else!! 💸
There was a time when the lottery was a chance to win big and change your life. These over the top games like Power ball are just not that
attract to play anymore. The odds are so out there and the price of $2.00 a wager is not going to attract players anymore. Only those die hard
players will continue to fork a few bucks on these games. They need to make it more interesting if they hope to attract more players and more revenue. The Pick 3,4 & 5 games are more realistic for the average person to hit. People have less disposable income now more than ever.
and still $2 per play
SMH
Well,I've been playing PB religiously for ages, mainly just hoping to hit $2 million second prize. The odds are less than half of my state's lotto game, and I was willing to spoon up $3 a ticket. The place I work is closed for the time being, so, I'm cutting way back on my lottery spending. No more PB. Back to Tx Lotto at a buck.
Personally, I think PB and MM really need to at least go back to $1 a ticket. Especially at the odds the jackpots are. I know sales drives jackpots, but if people aren't buying tickets because of cost AND crazy odds, and now a pandemic, what they have now is not sustainable. While they're at it, combine MM and PB into one game with either 4 draws a week at a dollar a ticket, or just drop one or the other and leave it at 2 draws a week. With one game and 4 draws a week the jackpot would roll quicker and at $1 a draw players spend $4 a week instead of $8, if they choose to play all 4 draws.
Covid-19 was apparently fatal to Powerball as well as the human beings who died from what our wonderful President, Don the Con, called "a hoax."
Gonna be hard to sell tickets, if there's no starting jackpot. I think they are about to do a lot more damage.
As it is now it's an unattractive game and with the pandemic forget it. Hopefully, they will do an overhaul and produce a more attractive game in the future.
So are Lottery Post members still buying PB and MM tickets at the same rate or has anyone cut back and/or stopped buying entirely?
The best option would be to combine Mega-Millions and Powerball into a single game. Drawings twice a week and $1 per wager. If you have all players wagering on a single game the jackpots would grow bigger, faster. Everyone would be a winner.
Have any changes been announced for Mega Millions or is it going to stay put. Is it because it's much harder to HIT?
Haven't heard a peep about MM. Seems odd because they're in the same boat as PB. Sales aren't too good. That's why I think combining the 2 games into 1 would make sense. I'm not the first to say that, but right now it makes the most sense, and make it $1 per ticket. We may not see jackpots reaching $300-$400 million or more again, but jackpots that exceed state's lotto games because it would be a national game.
I'm still buying normally, but covid hasn't hit my state hard yet. It's here though, so by next draw I might be staying home completely. At that point, I still have my regular numbers till 4/22, but no extra quick picks.
Hopefully this will encourage all states to sell tickets online in the future. There are several states who do it, so I know it's possible. Maybe the loss of revenue this pandemic has caused will get their butts in gear and just make it happen.
I have stopped buying lottery tickets because I'm not leaving my family's home. I used Instacart for grocery delivery yesterday. People don't realize that once you get it you have a 80% death rate. The news is now saying that New Orleans' eating habits is why there is such a high death rate, I don't believe that for one moment.
I say Michigan, Ohio, or Massachusetts. So, after this jackpot is won, the beginning amount could be $2-5 million?
I'm not the first to say that, but right now it makes the most sense, and make it $1 per ticket.-
Personally Rcb, l say anyone winning a $20 mil jackpot has no reason to complain. It's more than anyone of us will ever make in our lifetimes on our own. So $1 a line it should be.
Bring back the " Dollar and a Dream" philosophy !!!
We are seriously witnessing one of the greatest failures in governance and basic leadership in modern times...
I agree with the needed shift to online ticket purchasing options. Unfortunately the state assembly here has a Puritanical bent and will be hard pressed to sanction "online gambling". They won't even allow for entering losing tickets online for the second chance drawing. Instead you have to buy postage stamps, fill out the back of the ticket(s) then fill out the envelope(s) and then find a mailbox to drop it all in because heaven forfend we embrace the heathenistic 20th century technology called the Internet.
Let me guess...Massachusetts. Your Treasurer Debby so and so is all for it, that I know. An uphill unnecessary battle because of the old geezers in the state and federal level. Like the old saying goes "Too ornery for the Devil and God doesn't want them." IOW...they live forever and stifle anything they don't like, which is most everything. Sad being that this is the 21st Century.
No actually Wisconsin. It's a great state in many ways but the lottery lacks any sort of sophistication here. It's like we're always lagging years behind other states in improvements.
We finally got widespread lottery vending machines over the past year or so but they are very basic and limited in function. It's sad that in 2020 a soda vending machine out performs the lottery vending machines by a country mile.
im co-signing this, icam.(i couldn't agree more.)
i m not surprised it's being circumvented, they think they are so slick, as my fam in california stop playing literally, maybe 1x a month or every other few months.
NWI(not worth it)as dad still say as i post here saying it at times Oh Cassie! You're winning more per year with your pick 3 multi-play on "1 number"that hit
pretty well, for u.
Odds are better(of course on PICK 4) that is.
Dad says,it is RIGGED lol so, Cassie, don't play it's rigged, if not? Why do only "1 or 2 maximum people win when it's so significantly HIGH?" It should be MULTIPLE in multi-states he say.
-
Also, in dad's opinion, way
more winner's per state on the 4 number with a mega or powerball = $ 50,000 each person should be dozens if that, and still would have enough left over for the "state" et.al.,
or when "real high" more "5 numbers w/out the mega or powerball." so he do not play anymore for almost now 20 yrs, retired happy healthy and mom still buy a ticket"here and there."Not much.
Good luck though to ALL of my fellow LP players $ with your lottery games."
Hi, Sara. Interesting, 1 of my family members husband,Rob is from WI., and just the other day,
he said analogous, to what you're saying today, insofar as "kinda laggin' behind, for many years." and lol @ vending comment. i hear ya...
G-luck.
I'll continue to play because our Florida state lotto pales in comparison to MM/PB jackpots. I bought two PB tickets for tonight's draw. Anyone else?
In Illinois we residents can purchase these lottery tickets online without an upcharge. The first credit card I tried to use didn't allow though. However, the second credit card I entered did allow it. Cheers, fellow gamblers.
Besides MM & PB, what other tickets can you purchase on-line? I love the convenience. Only drawback here is, according to my question to the Kentucky Lottery, is that they will not cut separate checks for say you had a lottery pool.
Feels like they are changing the rules in the middle of the game. It doesn't seem fair. They should wait till this round of play
has a winner, then they can change the rules. It's like having a poker hand, and we change the game in the middle of the game.
This is just wrong, not fair to loyal players. If they want to change the game than they should change the cost back to $1.00 like it was for years. But this change should be against the rules that they established.
"It's like having a poker hand, and we change the game in the middle of the game."
If you don't like it then don't play the next hand, but your analogy isn't even close to accurate. I'm pretty sure that the rules of Poker don't say that the pot carries over or that the pot for each hand has to increase by a set amount, or even increase at all. Last time I looked the pot was based on how much the players put into it.
I don't recall seeing a lot of idiotic whining about changes every time the jackpot gets reset and instead of playing for $100 million, $200 million, or half a billion they're only offering $40 million. Because of declining sales PB is currently offering jackpots that are more than the actual cash on hand. After the next drawing they'll be making it much more like a poker hand, and basing the jackpot on how much money players chip in.
Last time I checked buying lottery tickets was also optional, and there are many different hands being played at the same time. You can choose not to play, or oyu can choose to play a different game depending on what's being offered.
To my knowledge, the smallest recent PB winning jackpot was $59 million two years ago. And that was two drawings after a $456.7 million jackpot was won. I doubt they expected someone to win considering only 14 million tickets were sold.
"These changes are necessary to ensure that ticket sales can support the Powerball jackpot and other lower-tier cash prizes,"
Is it that difficult for some people to understand there is an obvious reason for lower sales?
Some lucky person in New Jersey hit for all the moola last night....was it Todd et al???
Really sucked seeing $20 million reset value, but I don't think anyone would complain getting that.
Definitely weird to see 'only' $20mil, but you're right, I wouldn't complain. It still works out to $10mil cash after federal taxes. I can't think of any problems I have that wouldn't be fixed with that kind of money.
for those who don't know Mega Millions made same change.
"The advertised Mega Millions jackpot for Friday, April 3, is a guaranteed annuitized value of $121 million. If there is no jackpot winner that evening, the jackpot will roll to an annuitized value of $127 million. If the jackpot is won on April 3, it will reset to a guaranteed annuitized value of $20 million for the next drawing on April 7. Subsequent starting jackpots and the rate at which the jackpot increases will be established based on game sales and interest rates, with no fixed minimum amount. These will be determined and announced prior to each drawing. Previously, the jackpot started at $40 million, and the minimum increase was $5 million for each roll.
Greed is the name of the game. Up the prices , reduce the odds of winning, then lower the payout and pay with the interest rates. These two lotteries are going to fail if they keep this up, because people will no longer "live for the game" - read Orwell's 1984 and you'll know what's happening.
if you do buy tickets buy them 4 draws at a time.
Be safe.
9.5 million cash after my state taxes too. Definitely enough for me. That still would provide a very very nice life.
Too bad my state doesn't have any worthwhile games. They'd probably see an uptick in sales if they did.