What Made the US Powerball the King of Kings?
The US Powerball has been the King of Kings throughout the world lottery scene for some time now and, with jackpots regularly stretching into the hundreds of millions of dollars, it doesn’t look to be going anywhere.
The Powerball began selling tickets for $2 in April of 1992 and had a starting jackpot of $2 million. At that time the game featured a matrix that had players chosen five numbers between 1-45 and then a Powerball number between 1-45. The matrix changed to a format featuring 1-55 for the first five numbers and a 1-42 for the Powerball number in 2005 and has since changed to what it is today, 1-59 for the five white balls and then 1-35 for the single Powerball number.
The starting jackpot for the US Powerball has gone from $2 million back in 1992 to $40 million today. The growth of the Powerball has been continuously phenomenal and, by the looks of it, will continue to grow for years to come.
The Growth of the Largest Lottery Jackpot Game in the World
The major break for both the Powerball and the Mega Millions came in 2009 when states began discussions about offering both games. It had previously been a general rule that states were only allowed to sell one game or the other. The decision to offer both games throughout the country has allowed both major jackpot games to grow exponentially.
The biggest reason for the recent massive jumps in jackpot sizes for the US Powerball come from the MUSL’s ability to continually grow the number of states that offer the game. After California jumped on board in April of 2013, the US Powerball now has 45 state participants throughout the country. California’s addition has forced Powerball jackpot numbers to skyrocket even higher ever since, as would be expected when adding the most populated state in the US. It’s no coincidence that the largest payout in Powerball history came just one month after California’s inclusion in the Powerball drawings.
Largest Payouts in History of the US Powerball
No one can deny that the power of the US Powerball, no pun intended, comes from the astronomical jackpots that the game regularly produces. While jackpots start out at $40 million, they almost always reach the $100 million mark before a first place winner is announced.
The largest jackpot in the history of the US Powerball was $590,500,000 prize won by Gloria McKenzie – an 84 year old Florida resident – in May of 2013. Ms. McKenzie ended up taking the one time cash option which, after taxes, came out to be $370,800,000. The second largest prize was $597.5 million and was split by two different winners in Arizona and Missouri.
As we mentioned before, the payouts of the Powerball are expected to continue to grow. Since California has joined the Powerball drawings, we’ve already seen three different Powerball drawings reach the $400 million threshold with another winner in South Carolina coming away with a jackpot prize of $399.4 million in September of 2013. As the drawings continue to become more and more popular and we continue to see other states jump on board, it certainly is not out of the question for us to see a $1 billion jackpot in the not so distant future
What are Your Odds of Winning the US Powerball?
One of the most intriguing parts of the US Powerball is that even players that don’t match the necessary jackpot numbers have the opportunity to become millionaires by matching every number but the Powerball number. The second place prize is a standard $1 million and there are regularly anywhere between one and five people who win the second place prize per drawing.
Odds of winning the major jackpot prize are 1 in 175,223,510 while odds of winning the second prize come in at a much more manageable number of 1 in 5,153,632. The staggering odds of winning the Powerball means that you are more likely to be struck by lightning or becoming a professional athlete than you do to win either the first or second place Powerball prizes.
The US Powerball also features a third place prize of $10,000, which pays out to players who match four of the five main numbers and also match the Powerball number. Odds of winning the third place prize are an even more manageable 1 in 648,975. While all these odds are clearly substantial, the dream of becoming a multi-millionaire and being set for life will fuel us all to keep buying those tickets and potentially live out our dreams of hitting it big.
While the Mega Millions has begun to catch up to the US Powerball in terms of payouts, no lottery in the world can match the consistency that the Powerball has offered throughout its existence. There is no doubt that it will continue to grow and that one day we will be looking at a billionaire created by matching the six numbers necessary to hit it big.
