How to play Powerball

Are you the next Powerball winner?

There’s no way of really knowing, but there is a way of making the odds work in your favor. Want to find out which Powerball numbers to bet on, or how to win Powerball?

This is the right page for you. Below, we detail how Powerball works, on what numbers to bet on, what the Powerball payout is and where Powerball has been won before.

Everyone wants to become a millionaire overnight. And it can’t be true for everyone. But it sure can be true for some of us. Bring on the Powerball lottery!

Powerball is a multi-state lottery: it’s run in every single state except for 8, and except in the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. The 8 states which don’t run the Powerball are Nevada, Utah, Mississippi, Alabama, Alaska and Hawaii.

There are no restrictions on Canadians (or indeed, any other non-US residents) playing Powerball from Canada.

In Powerball, 5 white balls are drawn from a drum of 69 balls. An additional 1 red ball is drawn from a drum of 26 balls.

How many numbers do you need to match to win?

If you manage to match all six numbers, you hit the jackpot baby! Match just a few numbers, and you’ll still get other, smaller prizes. There is no particular order to the numbers drawn. As long as those 6 numbers are on your Powerball ticket, then you’re going to be laughing all the way to the bank.

Drawings for Powerball:

The draw itself takes place twice a week, every Wednesday and Saturday night at 10:59pm (Eastern Time). The location of the draw is the Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida.

How to buy Powerball tickets

To participate in the Powerball lottery, all you have to do is purchase a Powerball ticket from a licensed vendor. For Canadian players – you’ll have to do this online.

Once you buy the $2 ticket, you’ll need to select 5 white ball numbers and 1 red Powerball number. You can either choose yourself – many people prefer this option out of sheer superstition – or let a machine do it.

You can also use Power Play to boost any non-jackpot prizes you win. This will only cost an extra US $1 per ticket, and will increase any prizes you win according to the number on the ball drawn – up to 10x!

From there, just keep track of those draws on Wednesdays and Saturdays to check if you’ve won anything.

How much do Powerball tickets cost?

Each Powerball ticket costs $2. $2 that could mean the difference between you and a million dollar cash prize (or a multi-million dollar cash prize).

There are varying cash winnings that you can get from the Powerball. Mainly, these fall under three types: the jackpot, the 2nd tier prize, and the average wins.

Jackpot Prize

The jackpot prize is won by matching the 5 white balls + 1 red Powerball.

As a rule, the jackpot amount always starts off at a base of $40 million. From there on, it grows by $10 million every time it’s not won. If you’re the lucky person who does land the jackpot prize – there are two different ways you can choose to cash out on your millions.

Annuitized: When you choose to have your prize annuitized, it will be paid out over a period of 29 years. That’s a total of 30 payments (including the one you get instantly when you win). It also includes a 5% increase of the prize to cover the increase in the cost of living over the years. The great thing about annuitized payments is that you avoid the massive tax cut from the lump sum of the jackpot.

Cash Sum: Bonus – you get all your money at once. Down side – you have to pay tax on it. A lot of tax.

Second Prize

The second largest prize you can get from Powerball is $1,000,000. This can only be paid out in cash (not an annuitized prize). If you’re using the Power Play option, which you can read up on further below, this figure goes up to double the amount.

Yep, just from the second prize, you can win an impressive $2,000,000.

You win the $1 million by matching the 5 white ball numbers.

Smaller Wins

Basically, when playing Powerball, you win anytime you match at least 3 white balls or 1 red Powerball. When purchasing a ticket, the odds are 1/25 that you’ll win some sort of small prize like this.

Currently the odds of winning Powerball stand at 1 in 292 million. That’s about the same as flipping a coin and getting the same result (heads or tails) 28 times in a row, according to the Associated Press.

There are total of 9 possible matches when playing Powerball. Each of these 9 matches will payout in some way, although some are obviously bigger than others.

 

 

Statistically, the luckiest Powerball numbers are 32, 41, 16, 20 and 40.

The unluckiest Powerball numbers are 66, 68, 67, 60, and 65.

Oh, and it seems to help if you play the lucky numbers in Indiana – which has produced the highest number of jackpot winners (39) out of all the states!

As you’re probably aware, the Powerball lotto is largely a game of chance. That said, there are a few tips and tricks to vastly increase your chances of winnings. These are methods that have worked for many Powerball winners over the years, and which can really make a difference in the odds involved.

Take a look at our top three ways of how to increase your chances of winning Powerball even trying)

1. Lottery Pools: When playing online, these can be called ‘syndicates’, but it’s basically the same concept. Instead of going it solo, and buying perhaps a couple of tickets or more – you can join forces with others.

When playing in lottery pools with other people, you can afford to buy more tickets. More tickets = much better chances of winning. If you do win anything, you split the cash. Plenty of groups have won like this.

2. Cold Numbers: If you follow this extremely helpful page on the Powerball website, you’ll get a good idea of the cold and hot numbers. ‘Cold’ numbers are numbers that don’t come up often.

Although it might seem counter-productive to bet on cold numbers, there is a strategy to it. If you bet on a cold number, and that number goes up, then you’re likelier to be the only player to win the prize. This means you get to keep more money to yourself. You won’t need to split your Powerball winnings with anyone else.

3. Hot Numbers: Just like there are cold numbers, there are hot numbers. These are numbers that come up very frequently. Betting on these will increase your chances of landing a win. However, you should be prepared to split that win with a few other people.

The hottest white ball numbers are 32, 23, 16, 69 and 64.

The hottest red ball numbers are 9, 24, 21, 10 and 6.

Another way to get the most out of your ticket – is to go for the Power Play add-on. When using the Power Play add-on, you’ll be able to substantially increase any win you get. This applies to all wins, except for the major jackpot prize (with one major exception).

With regards to the second prize, the Power Play will increase winnings by a fixed double the amount. As mentioned above, this means that a $1 million prize can double up to a whopping $2 million prize! In fact, many people have benefited from this sort of deal.

With regards to smaller winnings, they are multiplied by a number that is also drawn by the Powerball corporation. The possible multipliers are: 2x, 3x, 4x, or 5x.

In 2015, a special 10x was added to the range. This multiplier can be applied to all jackpots worth $150 million or less. However, this multiplier is not always available.

And, you could too. All for the added cost of $1 to the standard $2 per ticket.

The payouts for Power Play are no joke. Take a look at this table for the statistics (taken from the Powerball site itself):

So, when choosing which Powerball to buy – always go with the Power Play option. The extra $1 could actually make thousands more.