Oklahoma Lottery News

If you play the Powerball lottery, winning is going to become more difficult because the rules and odds of the game are changing radically in favor of “the house”.

On January 4, 2009 the Powerball lottery will switch from the current format of selecting 5 white balls from a group of 55 and the Poweball from a group of 42 to selecting 5 white balls from a group of 59 and selecting the Powerball from a group of 39.

While it sounds like getting the correct Powerball will be easier, 1 of 39 rather than 1 of 42, the other change involving the addition of four white balls makes the odds worse, much worse over-all.

Under the current format the odds of any one Powerball lottery play winning the jackpot is 1 in 146,107,962. With the new format the odds jump to 1 in 195,249,054.

Under the current format the odds of any one Powerball lottery play matching all five white balls is 1 in 3,563,609. Under the new format the odds jump to 1 in 5,138,133.

Under the current format the odds of any one Powerball lottery play matching four white balls and the Powerball is 1 in 584,432. Under the new format the odds jump to 1 in 723,145.

Under the current format the odds of any one Powerball lottery play matching four white balls is 1 in 14,254. Under the new format the odds jump to 1 in 19,030.

Under the current format the odds of any one Powerball lottery play matching three white balls and the Powerball is 1 in 11,927. Under the new format the odds jump to 1 in 13,644.

Note: The above odds are to the nearest whole number

The same scenario plays out with the lower paying “wins”, except for the $3 win for the Powerball only, whose odds do improve.

A very troubling aspect of the announce of the pending changes involves a move to pari-mutual prize pools when the lottery “may not be able to pay the stated set prize levels”.

Quoting the Powerball.com site:

Your state lottery sales terminals are winding down future plays until the game change, but the multi-draw plays will be back after January 4. In very rare instances, we may not be able to pay the stated set prize levels (for example, if you all play the numbers from the TV show “LOST” and we draw those numbers). In that case, the prize pools will go pari-mutuel (like the jackpot) and we will divide the prize pool among all of the winners.

While the odds are going up in favor of “the house”, not all the news about the pending changes in the Powerball lottery are bad news.

Quoting the Powerball.com site:

The Power Play option will continue, except that we will now always draw a 5X for the second prize (Match 5+0). That means that when you win the second prize and have also purchased the Power Play option, your $200,000 will automatically become $1 million; every time.

Obviously Powerball is going to be paying out more, possibly a lot more $1 million prizes.

However with the radical increase in “house odds” on the jackpot “the house” will likely come out way ahead in the long run.

Another change for the good is that the starting jackpot will be increased from a guaranteed $15 million to a guaranteed $20 million.

Here again, the radical increase in “house odds” on the jackpot “the house” will likely still come out way ahead in the long run as there will be fewer jackpots won over-all and certainly fewer “starting” jackpots required as a result.

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