subject: Important Changes in the History of Powerball Lottery [print this page] Important Changes in the History of Powerball Lottery
The Powerball lottery game has come a long way since 1992 when it was first drawn in April that year. If you are new to Powerball lottery, you may not know that the predecessor of Powerball was known as Lotto*America which was launched in the year 1988.
However, a lot of things including the name were changed, and the real journey of this extremely popular game began in 1992.
Powerball lottery is credited for being the first lottery game that used the concept of two drums. A number of popular games of today, including Mega Millions, Australian Powerball, and many others followed a similar concept. An important change was brought about in 1996 when Powerball lottery was drawn for the first time on the road, and the Atlanta Summer Olympics was chosen as the event for the same.
GeorgiaLeaves Powerball
Georgia was the first member of the Powerball lottery to leave the game in the year 1996 to join Mega Millions. However, it is worth mentioning that it re-joined the lottery game as a member recently in 2010.
Another significant change occurred when the cash prize payment was introduced in the year 1997. At the same time, the annuity prize payment option in the Powerball lottery changed its duration from 20 to 25 years.
Introduction of Power Play
Power Play, which is a popular feature of the Powerball lottery these days, was introduced in 2001. Initially, there were 5 multipliers from 1x to 5x chosen for the feature. However, 1x multiplier was removed as an option from Power Play.
Role of Florida
Though Florida obtained the permission to join the Powerball lottery in 1998, it didn't join the game until January 2009. With the joining of Florida, a significant change was introduced in the game. Earlier, the matrices for choosing white and red balls were 5 out of 55 and 1 out of 42 respectively. In 2009, the matrices changed to 5 out of 59 for white balls and 1 out of 39 for red balls. This decreased the jackpot probability from 1 in 146 million to 1 in 195 million.
Cross-sell Agreement with Mega Millions
Another important change occurred in 2009 when Powerball lottery and Mega Millions signed an agreement to cross sell the tickets in various jurisdictions. As a result, a number of members of Mega Millions were added to Powerball, raising the number to 44. Today, the Powerball lottery has spread its magic to different corners of the United States.
The ease of buying the Powerball lottery tickets also increased over the years. You can visit one of the retailer websites to purchase the tickets for this game. These websites also act as the information resource for various updates about Powerball.
