Powerball lottery organizers bet that bigger jackpots will encourage more people to play, although they will have to do it at a higher price. Lottery winning numbers

Tickets for the multistate game are doubling in price to $2 beginning Jan 15. While the odds of winning one of the game’s giant jackpots also are improving, the fact that people are willing to pay more for the hope of becoming a millionaire in a down economy, maybe another way of gambling.

“With the price of everything else going up, there’s not much you can get for a dollar anymore,” said 28-year-old Ryan Raker, of Des Moines, Iowa, who buys a ticket once a month. He says he’ll probably play less frequently now. Lottery numbers

Powerball’s move follows the model of scratch ticket games, which once were all $1 but now are offered at higher prices along with the chance to get bigger prizes.

Lottery officials believe that increasing the price of the game will make it more attractive to players.

And since people like variety, what lottery organizers are doing is to repack, freshen up and enriching the product.

Powerball is the big fish and typically has some of the biggest payouts. There are nine ways to win the game, from a $3 prize for matching the Power Ball number to various payouts for different combinations of winning numbers.

Also, they are changing the strategy of the game to differentiate it from Mega Millions, the other big money, multi-state lottery game that is sold for $1 a ticket.

According to Powerball officials, “the idea is to draw people to it because of the size of the jackpot, as prizes escalate more people tend to enter the game. The idea is that at $12 million people don’t get too excited but, when it crosses $140 million, more people will play and by increasing the price level of tickets you will reach that prize level much faster.”

“We wouldn’t be doing it if we didn’t think more money would be coming back to the states and help them with revenues during these tough economic times”, they added.

Hargrove, the Tennessee lottery executive, said that, in multiple cases, many players already pay an extra dollar to play an option called the Power Play, which can multiply winnings for prizes below the jackpot level.

And in the case of Oklahoma, 40 percent of players already are paying $2 for a Powerball ticket with the Power Play option. In Tennessee, nearly 30 percent pay to play the Power Play option. And even with the new changes, this option will continue to be offered for an extra dollar.

Still, Powerball will have to work to win over players hesitant to fork over an extra dollar. Many say they’ll simply play half as much, or switch to the less expensive Mega Millions.

Since it still remains to be seen whether this strategy hits the jackpot for Powerball or not. Only time will tell.