The Pennsylvania Lottery is giving away tickets for the Powerball multi-state lottery with a chance for players to win hundreds of millions of dollars.
The Pennsylvania Lottery’s new Powerball promotion launched Oct. 1. The promotion randomly awards players a free ticket of equal value when they buy an individual Powerball with Power Play ticket for $3. There are only a limited number of free tickets available, so the promotion will run until the tickets are gone or Oct. 31 comes around.
Powerball is a multi-state lottery with a reputation for massive jackpots. Tickets are available in 44 states, Washington D.C., Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Draws are every Wednesday and Saturday at 10:59 p.m. local time in PA.
Tickets start at $2 and allow players to select five numbers from 1 to 69 and a red Powerball number from 1 to 26.
Adding the $1 Power Play option allows a winner to increase any lower-tier prizes won by a factor of 2, 3, 4, or 5, depending on the Power Play number drawn. A 10-times multiplier is also available if the Powerball jackpot is $150 million or less for that draw.
Of course, jackpot wins are not multiplied by this number. However, the $1 million prize for matching five numbers is doubled to $2 million.
The jackpot for the Wednesday Oct. 3 Powerball drawing is an estimated $229 million.
Powerball in PA
Pennsylvania Lottery retailers have sold 18 jackpot winning Powerball tickets since the PA Lottery started offering Powerball in 2002.
The largest ever Powerball win in PA came on March 17 this year. A Speedway gas station and convenience store in Lancaster County sold the $456.7 million jackpot-winning Powerball ticket. Emerald Legacy Trust claimed the win in April and opted to receive a lump sum cash prize of $273,959,698. Jackpot winners often set up a trust to claim winnings anonymously and help manage the money.
This marked the largest jackpot ever awarded by the Pennsylvania Lottery. Plus, it marked Powerball’s eighth-largest jackpot to date.
The largest ever Powerball jackpot was $1.6 billion. Three winners from California, Florida, and Tennessee split the win in January 2016.
The Pennsylvania Lottery launch online lottery sales in May 2018. However, Powerball and other draw game ticket sales have yet to go online. The PAiLottery website and PA Lottery mobile app currently offer a variety of online instant win games only.
PA Lottery proceeds
The proceeds from all Pennsylvania Lottery sales go to programs benefiting older residents. It is the only state lottery program in the country that forwards all proceeds to such programs.
The PA Lottery launched in 1972. Since then, it has contributed approximately $29 billion to fund property tax and rent rebates, transportation, care services, prescription assistance, and local services for older residents, including senior centers and meals.
