Prepare To Pay Double For Powerball
TALLAHASSEE (CBS4) - If your secret vice was spending a buck a week on the dream of winning the Powerball jackpot, you'll soon be out of luck unless you're willing to double your investment. The price of your dream will jump by 100%, to $2, but Florida lottery officials are hoping other changes will keep players spending.
The Multi-State Lottery Association is making the change, effective January 15, 2012, but they are playing down the price increase as they play up changes that will offer bigger payouts.
When the ticket hits $2, Powerball will include starting jackpots of $40 million, up from $20 million, and an increased second prize of $1 million for players who match 5-of-5 winning numbers. The current jackpot is $200 thousand. There will also be slight increases in payoffs for fewer numbers matched.
If all you match is the powerball, your prize will jump from $3 to $4.
In addition, the number of balls in the pool for the powerball will drop from 39 to 35, which will provide players slightly better odds, from the current 1 in 35 to win a prize, to just 1 in 31.8.
Some of these benefits have already been available if you used the Powerplay option, which doubled the payouts for everything but the big jackpot, but while that was a voluntary decision, the new ticket prices are not.
Powerplay will change as well. Adding a buck will increase a ticket to $3, but it will double the $1 dollar payout for matching 5 numbers to $2 million.
The Florida Lottery, which has the strongest Powerball sales of any state lottery, claims it will benefit because more money will be raised for education.
The price of bigger payouts might not mean much to people who don't have an extra buck to play, especially in a state where the economic recovery is flagging and unemployment remains high.
However, it's likely The Florida Lottery isn't really worried. The state said Floridians spend almost $4 billion a year on lottery tickets.
The Florida Lotto, which is offered along with Powerball, will remain at $1 for now, although the jackpots are much smaller than Powerball.
