Right up beside the MegaMillions in terms of popularity in America is the Powerball lottery. It’s biggest claim to fame is that it has distributed the largest jackpot in American history: $177,270,519 -€134,856,087. This was the cash value prize given for 1 ticket. Like the Mega Millions this prize was advertised as $365 (€277) million, as was the annuity value of the prize, which shall be explained below. For now though lets find out more about how this exciting game works, and what sort of prizes you could be winning…

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The cost of a Powerball ticket in one of the participating American states is $2, playing online will cost more depending on the site. Playing the game involves choosing 5 numbers from a pool of 1-59, and 1 Powerball number from a pool of 1-35. Once you have your six numbers you can catch the draws on Wednesday and Saturday evenings at 22.59 eastern American time. By matching just three of your 5 main numbers and/or 1 Powerball number you can win a prize, and the more numbers you match beyond that the better the prize.

Match all numbers and the Powerball and the jackpot is yours.

The table below shows just what you can win for matching certain numbers, and the odds of it being a possibility!

Balls MatchedPrizeApproximate Odds Of Winning

Powerball Only $3 1 in 61.74
1 + Powerball $4 1 in 123.48
2 + Powerball $7 1 in 787.17
3 + No Powerball $7 1 in 359.06
3 +Powerball $100 1 in 13,644.24
4 + No Powerball $100 1 in 19,030.12
4 + Powerball $10,000 1 in 723,144.64
5 + No Powerball $200,000 1 in 5,138,133
5 + Powerball Jackpot! 1 in 195,249,054

As you can see there are lots of ways to win by playing the Powerball lottery and all you have to do to be in with a chance of winning one of these fantastic prizes is pick up a ticket!

As state above all Powerball jackpots are advertised as their annuity value. Jackpot winners have the choice when they win on whether they would like to choose the annuity value of the prize or take a lump cash sum. In the case of the annuity the winner will receive their money as a graduated annuity paid across thirty years in annual instalments. Each annual payment is 4% higher than the year previous to adjust for inflation. The advertised jackpot is the total amount the player would have received at the end of thirty years.