A game redesign lets jackpots soar higher than ever
Powerball winners tend to be few and far between. And another week has gone by without a winner of the $360 million jackpot. That means next week’s drawing will be for a massive $475 million.
Wednesday’s numbers were 02-11-26-34-41, with Powerball 32.
It can be hard to match all six numbers needed for the Powerball jackpot, but a game redesign in 2012 supposedly makes it easier to win large prizes. Because of the $1 increase in price, new $1 and $2 million prizes make it much more likely that you’ll win something.
The redesign also makes the jackpot value grow higher, faster.
“It usually took a handful of months, if not several months, for a jackpot to reach this large amount,” said Mary Neubauer, spokeswoman for the Iowa Lottery. “Now it’s achieving that within a handful of weeks. I think the redesign is achieving exactly what we had wanted it to achieve, which is the bigger, faster-growing jackpot.”
Winners would likely agree that the redesign is working. Even though there was no Powerball jackpot winner, more than a dozen people in ten states won $1 million prizes. But even with the redesign, the odds of winning the jackpot are one in 175.2 million, according to Powerball.
A New Jersey man won last Powerball jackpot of $338.3 million on March 23. That was the fourth highest jackpot won from Powerball.
The highest Powerball jackpot win was $587.5 million in 2012. It was also the second highest jackpot won from any lottery. The highest, $656 million, was also won in 2012 from the Mega Millions jackpot.
The next Powerball jackpot drawing will be Saturday.
