Powerball players will now have the chance to start the week as a winner. A new Monday drawing starts on August 23 in addition to Wednesday and Saturday evenings. A spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Lottery confirmed that the third drawing would be coming to Pennsylvania in addition to other participating states.
The hope is to quicken the pace for building jackpots and increase sales.
Powerball tickets can conveniently be purchased online from the PA Lottery with a $20 signup bonus available or at licensed vendors. The $2 per ticket price and $1 Power Play multiplier remain unchanged. The third drawing will not change the game odds or set cash prizes.
Powerball adds third drawing and new Double Play feature
Ewa Swope, Press Secretary for the Pennsylvania Lottery, explained the upcoming changes:
“The Powerball Product Group anticipates adding the Monday drawing will result in larger, faster-growing jackpots. The group also expects to see an increase in the number of cash prizes and jackpots awarded on an annual basis. The changes will help us give our Pennsylvania players exactly what they’ve told us they want — larger, faster-growing jackpots. We anticipate this Powerball change will only drive sales, both in-store and online. Generally, when a lottery adds draw days, overall game sales increase. The most recent examples include Match 6 Lotto and Cash4Life, which increased drawings from twice weekly to daily.”
In addition to a third drawing, Powerball is also adding a Double Play feature.
Details of Double Play
For an additional $1, your Powerball ticket will be eligible for a second drawing where the top prize is $10 million and the remaining prize tiers offer larger payouts than Powerball. Double Play drawings will be held thirty minutes after every Powerball drawing on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday nights approximately 30 minutes after the Powerball drawings. However, the drawing will not be televised. Instead it will be live streamed at Powerball.com
Powerball jackpot odds
The top Powerball prize begins at $20 million and increases every time no player matches all five of 69 white balls and one of 26 red balls. The drawings are live at 10:59 pm ET at Universal Studios in Florida. Hitting the top prize has steep odds – 292 million to 1. Lightning is 239 times more likely to strike you.
The game includes 45 states, plus the District of Columbia, the U. Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico.
Winners in three states split a record $1.6 billion Powerball jackpot, the biggest in history, in 2016.
PA Lottery had record year
Official 2020-21 fiscal year sales and profit information for the PA Lottery isn’t available until August.
However, Swope commented:
“The Lottery had a record year, including significant growth in Powerball sales compared to the prior year.”
Swope added that there were no record jackpots in multi-state games to drive sales during the 2019-20 fiscal year. In 2019-20, sales in PA were down roughly 46% as compared to FY 2018-19.
Overall Powerball sales totaled $4.75 billion in 2018, then fell to $4.08 billion in 2019 and dropped to $3.17 billion amid the COVID-19 restrictions of 2020. Sales overall through early July have already reached $2.54 billion, according to Multi-State Lottery Association figures.
Lead image c/o Dreamstime.
