We all have our own ideas when it comes to how to win the Powerball jackpot. Whether you’ve spent hours figuring out your perfect set of numbers or plan on leaving it to the computer, you’d probably do just about anything to get a leg up in the battle to the millions, or sometimes billions.
Plenty of players choose to spend an extra dollar on the Power Play option. This multiplier choice allows you to multiply your winnings if you come second place or below.
Okay, we know the odds of getting anything may seem stacked against you, so should you really add multipliers to your Powerball ticket?
Let’s take a closer look.
First Things First – How Does the Power Play Multiplier Option Work?
It’s all pretty straightforward. You pay an extra dollar for the multiplier add-on option. You then stand to double your Match 5 prize (so, if you win $1 million, it jumps up to $2 million), and you stand to multiply all lower prizes by either 2X, 3X, 4X or even 5X.
You can even multiply your lower prizes by 10X on the bottom seven prize levels if the jackpot hits $150 million or below.
You have the chance to choose your multipliers before the Powerball draw.
About Those Winning Odds
So, what are the odds of winning? If we’re talking jackpots, the odds are 1 in nearly 300 million, and the odds of becoming a millionaire by matching all five numbers is 1 in nearly 12 million.
While you might have a better chance of being knighted than winning the grand prize, wouldn’t you be upset if you didn’t add the Power Play option?
Well, let’s take a real-world example.
It costs $2 to play one Powerball ticket. You then have the option of adding the multiplier for another $1. Let’s say the draw comes around and you match four of your first five numbers and the Power Play number in the draw is 3X. Typically, you’d win $100, but since you added the multiplier feature to your ticket, the prize is multiplied to $300.
As you can see, there is a benefit to adding multipliers on your Powerball tickets. When a jackpot rolls over, it brings up the value of your ticket.
Here’s another basic example: Let’s say it’s a straightforward jackpot with one prize. You pay $2 for your ticket and there are 200 people playing for the prize. That means any jackpot over $100 will be worth more than the $2 it costs. So, if you buy all the tickets for $200, you win the jackpot and take home more than you paid for your tickets.
In other words, at a certain size, your lottery ticket can be worth more than what you paid for it.
On the flip side, if a jackpot is massive and a $2 ticket somehow becomes worth $2.02, you would have to buy a large number of tickets to see any returns.
Is It Really Worth It?
If you do decide to play Power Play, and your lucky ticket lands up qualifying for one of the non-jackpot prizes, you can multiply your prize.
Match five of the white-ball numbers and you qualify for a $1 million prize which then doubles to $2 million on a Power Play ticket.
In fact, even non-jackpot winnings can be multiplied by your Power Play number if it’s picked during a draw.
Is Power Play worth the extra $1? It really depends on you and your budget. After all, we’d never advise you to play more than you can comfortably afford to lose, so if that extra dollar is a stretch, then it’s not worth it.
However, if you’re keen to try and double your winnings, give it a go – but maybe not every week!