Powerball (USA)
 Current Jackpot $ 200,000,000
Powerball Overview 
Power Ball is an American lottery game which is sold through various U.S. lotteries as a shared jackpot pool game. Some of the world's largest lottery jackpots have been produced by Power Ball – with the record to date being the massive US$365 Million that was won on February 18th 2006. This still remains the biggest single ticket lottery win in the world. Powerball is drawn every Wednesday and Saturday with the draw taking place in Orlando, Florida. The forerunner to this Multi-State game was Lotto America which began in February 1988 and changed to its current Powerball name in April 1992.
The Power Ball Lottery is one of the 2 biggest and most popular USA Lotteries and is indeed one of the biggest lotto games in the world. Millions of players take part in the Power Ball Lotto – from the Multi State Lottery Association – twice a week not only in the USA but from around the world.
Multi-State Lottery Association
The USA lottery game, Powerball is co-ordinated by the Multi-State Lottery Association (MUSL) a non-profit, government-benefit association formed by an agreement with its member lotteries. The MUSL is also owned and operated by 33 participating US State Lotteries and manages the finances for each game. It also provides other games to its member lotteries including Hot Lotto, Wild Card2, 2by2 and Cashola. The state lottery retains all profits made which are used to fund projects approved by the state legislatures. As well as the existing 33 USA Lottery members of the MUSL – 11 further US Lottery companies are now licensed to sell Powerball tickets.
Powerball Cross-Over Sales...
On January 31st 2010 Powerball from the Multi State Lottery Association (MUSL) and its biggest rival Mega Millions – began offering each others lotteries in many US States under an historic cross-selling agreement. This increased the number of USA State Lotteries offering the Powerball game from 33 to 43 in January 2010 with the Ohio Lottery joining in April 2010. This means that you are now able to play Powerball right across America in a total of 44 different US States & districts as well as from overseas when you play Power Ball online. Similarly – at the same time on January 31st 2010 – the Mega Millions game began to be offered in Powerball jurisdictions – raising the total number of USA State Lotteries to be offering Mega Millions from 12 to 36 in January with 6 more Powerball States joining between March and May 2010. This means that you are now able to play Mega Millions in a total of 42 different US States & districts as well as overseas when you play Mega Millions online.
How It Works… 
Powerball lottery players need to pick 5 numbers from white balls numbered 1 to 59 and 1 additional Powerball number from red balls numbered 1 to 39. Each entry costs $1.00. There is also an additional feature that players can utilize when playing for just an extra $1.00 – PowerPlay – whereby a Random Number Generator applies a random multiplier to all prizes apart from the jackpot. Players can multiply non-jackpot prizes by 2x to 5x (or by 10x during a yearly promotion) depending on the PowerPlay number. Draws for the Powerball take place twice every week on Wednesdays and Saturdays at 22.59.
Random Number Generator
As well as the 5 main Powerball numbers, the PowerPlay additional number used to be drawn in the same way – ie. from a drawing machine – a ball rolling round in a wheel. With the relocation of the draw from Iowa to Florida though, the PowerPlay number is now draw using a Random Number Generator.
Who Can Play? 
In the past, only resident citizens of any of the member states were allowed to purchase tickets for the Power Ball lottery and these tickets had to be purchased within one of the participating states themsleves. Now, however, you are able to choose your Powerball numbers and purchase your tickets from online lottery ticket sales companies such as TheLotter – and you can play from anywhere around the world. That is great news for all those who live outside the U.S.A. and would like to take part in one of the world’s largest jackpot rollover lotteries and guarantee their entry into the next big Powerball draw or just want to be able to easily and conveniently buy lottery tickets online. Once you have entered into the draw, you can then quickly and easily check the Power Ball Results online to see how you have done and to find out if you have become one of the lucky winners.
Particpiating States & Territories…
The following is a list of the U.S. States & Territories that are members of the Multi-State Lottery Association (MUSL) and take part in the Powerball lottery along with the dates that they joined. There are currently 42 US State Lottery members plus the District of Columbia and the US Virgin Islands…
Information & Background 
The Power Ball Lotto was the first lottery game to use 2 separate drums when making the draws. The use of 2 drums was to offer a greater degree of flexibility in game design and would allow for both high Jackpot odds and low odds for other prize levels. This 2 drum concept has since been copied by other lotteries around the world including Mega Millions in the U.S., the Oz Power Ball in Australia and also the United Kingdom’s Thunderball and EuroMillions. The matrix has changed periodically over the years going from 5/45 (1/45) to 5/49 (1/42) to 5/53 (1/42) to 5/55 (1/42) and now to its current format of 5/59 (1/39). The State that the draw takes place in has also altered over the years with the drawings historically taking place in West Des Moines, Iowa and moving recently to Orlando, Florida in January 2009. Draws are also occasionally arranged to take place at more remote locations such as the U.S. Virgin Islands.
What Are The Odds?
The odds of winning the Jackpot are 1 in 195.24 million but the overall odds of winning a prize in the Powerball lottery are a very reasonable 1 in 35. The latest (2009) version of the game means that under normal conditions a 2nd prize ticket with PowerPlay will be guaranteed to be worth $1 Million cash. The starting jackpot has recently been increased to $20 Million. The largest of the Powerball jackpots take place once the game has seen at least 15 Rollover draws take place.
RECORD Jackpots… 
A single Power Ball ticket won a record jackpot worth an incredible $365 Million in Nebraska by a group of 8 food workers in February 2006. This still stands as the largest amount won on the Power Ball lotto and indeed remains the largest jackpot ever won in the world on a single lottery ticket. In October 2005 a record Jackpot of $340 Million was won by 2 related families in Jacksonville, Oregon. They split the lottery prize among themselves. A man from West Virginia had the Power Ball winning numbers on Christmas Day 2002 and claimed the biggest Jackpot to date of $314 Million. Among other Powerball results worth mentioning is the Jackpot of $314 Million won by a retired car worker from Ohio in August 2007. Statistical forecasts predict that the average Jackpot winnings have increased from $95 million to $141 Million and that more than 3.5 million additional prizes are expected to be won each year.
How Are Jackpots Paid? 
Jackpot lottery winners have a choice in how they are able to receive their winnings. They can choose to have a single cash lump sum payment or annuity payments. If the Jackpot lottery winner chooses to receive an annuity as opposed to a lump sum payment, it would be paid to them by way of 30 payments over a 30 year period. The very minimum Jackpot prize would be $20 Million and when a Rollover occurs it increases by at least $5 Million for each rollover. In terms of value, the lump sum payment that a Jackpot lottery winner would receive would generally be roughly half that of the annuity value that they would get paid in annual payments. In the vast majority of participating states Jackpot lottery winners do not have to make the choice as to whether they want to take the lump sum or the annuity until after they have made the claim for their prize. Once they have claimed, they normally have 60 days in which to make this decision. Prior to November 1997 they had to make that decision at the time they purchased their ticket. Of course, if you play lottery online whatever the size of your win, your lottery ticket sales company – such as TheLotter – will take care of all these details for you – including providing you with your chosen US Lottery result - so you will have nothing to worry about. Click here to
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