Cost Of Playing Powerball Doubles, Jackpots Increase
NORTH TEXAS (CBSDFW.COM) - Plan on digging deeper in your wallet to play the multi-state lottery game Powerball.
Beginning yesterday, the price of a Powerball ticket doubled from $1 to $2.
Game organizers say the higher price tag will lead to bigger jackpots and better odds of winning.
Changes to the game rules have increased jackpots from $20 million to $40 million. The Match 5 "second-place prize" will now be $1 million – as opposed to $200,000. When the Power Play option is chosen on that Match 5 the prize has doubled to $2 million.
Game organizers hope the price and prize increases will help differentiate Powerball from Mega Millions, another multi-state lottery game that sells for $1 a ticket. Both games have drawings twice a week but are played on different nights.
The only major change to how Powerball is played has dropped the pool for the Powerball number from 39 to 35. The first five numbers selected are still chosen from a pool of 59.
Just in case you're wondering, odds of winning Powerball have also gotten better. Now, the odds of winning any prize have gone from 1 in 35 to 1 in 31.8 and the odds winning the jackpot have dwindled down to 1 in 175.2 million.
The first drawing of the new Powerball game will be Wednesday, January 18.
