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POWERBALL TO OFFER $40 MILLION STARTING JACKPOTS AND BETTER ODDS OF WINNING BEGINNING JAN 15, 2012
October 19, 2011
POWERBALL, the iconic lottery game, is being enhanced to offer more value to its players. To celebrate its 20th anniversary in 2012, POWERBALL jackpots will start at $40 million and the game will feature better odds of winning, plus more chances to win a prize of at least $1 million cash. The enriched game will make its debut on January 15, 2012.
To support game enhancements for players, the POWERBALL ticket price will also change from $1 to $2 each beginning January 15. In addition, the Power Play feature will be available for an extra $1 per play.
“Players frequently ask for higher jackpots and better odds to win cash prizes,” said Vernon Kirk, Acting Director for the Delaware Lottery. “POWERBALL’s redesigned features provide added benefits to its players and the Delaware Lottery looks forward to presenting its players with this new and exciting opportunity.”
In addition to increasing the starting jackpot, POWERBALL will increase the second match-five prize from $200,000 to $1 million cash, and the lowest prize for matching just the red POWERBALL will increase from $3 to $4.
Players in the newly designed game will still choose their first five numbers from a pool of 59. But the group of numbers in the POWERBALL pool will shrink from 39 to 35, producing better overall odds of winning a prize in the game. Players today have a 1-in- 35 overall chance of winning, which will improve to 1-in-31.8 in the revamped game. Odds of winning a jackpot prize will improve from 1-in-195 million to 1-in-175 million.
“We understand some people may prefer the $1 price point,” said Kirk. “MEGA MILLIONS, HOT LOTTO, DELAWARE CASH 5 and a variety of Instant Games will continue to offer exciting options for those players.”
To prepare for the game changes, the Delaware Lottery must limit POWERBALL’s advance-play feature beginning with the December 17 draw. POWERBALL and Power Play tickets normally may be purchased for up to 10 future drawings through the advance play feature. The last opportunity to purchase 10 draws of POWERBALL in its current form will be December 14. After that drawing, the number of advance draws available for purchase will continue to decrease by one until January 14, 2012 – the last POWERBALL drawing under the current game design.
POWERBALL tickets for the new and enhanced version of the game will go on sale beginning Sunday, January 15, 2012. At that time, players will again be able to purchase up to 10 draws of advance-play tickets.
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