At $40 million the jackpot of the Powerball lottery starts. Then it grows by at least $10 million each time the jackpot is not won by anyone. Often times for this reason the jackpot value reaches hundreds of million dollars. In the year 2016, a Powerball jackpot was the largest lottery jackpot in the history of the world. The winning amount reached $1.6 billion dollars.
Even though the jackpot is hard to win, Powerball is still popular as it is more than just the jackpot prize. Another cash prize can be won in every drawing. Other cash prizes range between $4 to $2,000,000. How many numbers an individual has guessed right is what the amount of the prize depends on.
How much do you have to pay to play?
The maximum cost of a single Powerball lottery is no more than $3. This is quite cheap compared to the amount you can win. A basic Powerball card costs around $2 per piece. By adding just $1 more, you can add the PowerPlay option. If you add the PowerPlay option then it will increase the size of your prize only if you guess correctly 1 to 5 qualifying numbers.
As mentioned before, this lottery is such a game that uses two drums. Here the first drum will hold around 69 balls while the second drum will have 26 red balls in it. Out of the other drum, only one red-colored ball is picked and this particular ball is known as the Powerball.
You have to select 5 numbers when you will be buying the tickets and 1 Powerball number. The first 5 numbers will be picked by the drum which holds the white balls and the Powerball number will be extracted from the drum the holds the red ball. You have the option to pick your Powerball number or you can go for Quick Pick. With this option, the numbers will be chosen for you at random.