The American Powerball is a two-drum lottery game. One drum holds 69 white balls, while the other drum holds 26 red balls. Only one red ball will be drawn, and that red ball is called the Powerball.

When you buy Powerball lottery tickets online, you need to:

The five main Powerball lottery numbers will be drawn from the first drum with the white balls and one Power ball number will be drawn from the second drum with the red balls.

If you feel like letting Lady Luck choose your Powerball numbers, you can simply buy a Quickpick Powerball lottery ticket. The Quickpick play option will randomly kick out a set of Powerball lottery numbers on your behalf.

More Information about the Powerball lottery:

US Powerball Lottery History

On Sept. 16, 1987, The Multi-State Lottery Association formed (a non-profit organization formed by an agreement with U.S. lotteries), with the only members being the District of Columbia, Iowa, Kansas, Oregon, Rhode Island, and West Virginia (with Missouri joining a month later. The rest of the states joined over time.

The first game was called Lotto America. It was a pick-7-of-40 game. Players who matched four numbers won a prize of $5. Those matching five numbers won a pari-mutuel prize, and matching all seven numbers won the jackpot.

Unlike the Powerball lottery that we know today, Lotto America only offered a 20-year annuity and no cash option.

In April 1992, Lotto America was renamed Powerball, with the first drawing held April 22, 1992. This new version was the first lotto game to use two drums to draw the winning lottery numbers. One drum is used for the white balls and one for the red Powerball which gives the US Powerball lottery its name.

The lottery draws themselves are all about suspense, glitz and glamour, but what we see on-screen is preceded by a lot of methodical preparation.

What happens behind the scenes, from the draw machines to the balls and the tight security procedures in place, ensures that each and every lottery draw is fair and random:

• Four lottery officials unlock a secure vault where draw machines and ball sets are stored.
• Two machines and two ball sets are chosen at random.
• 21:30 EST – draw equipment is transported into the lottery studio.
• Ball sets are loaded into the machines under tight security. Ball handlers wear gloves.
• Testing begins and monitored by Lottery officials and Multi-State Lottery HQ.
• 22:30 EST – testing completed, ready for the draw.
• Cameras start rolling and the US Powerball Lottery draw begins at 23:00 EST.
• The draw is supervised and verified by independent public accountants.

More Powerball Information:

• The American Powerball is a multi state lottery and it takes place in all but six of the United States as well as the District of Columbia, the US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.
• In 1992 the Powerball lottery replaced the Lotto America lottery and became the first lottery game to use two rotating drums to draw the winning numbers. The first drum is used for the white balls and the second drum is for drawing the red Power ball which gives the lottery its name.

How late can I play the American Powerball online?

Ticket sales for all Powerball drawings is stopped an hour before the draw takes place.

Can I play Powerball from outside of America?

The good thing is that you are not limited to play the Powerball from America, because you can buy Powerball lottery tickets online at PlayHugeLottos. This means that you could be the jackpot winner of the next Powerball drawing.

Powerball Rollovers

The American Powerball lottery has a starting jackpot of $20 million and grows by around $10 million for the next jackpot and rolls over if it has not been won.

The cash value of a jackpot often reaches values of hundreds of millions of dollars. In 2016 the biggest lottery jackpot ever in the history of the world was a Powerball jackpot worth in excess of $1.586 billion dollars. In a close second, the other big game in the USA i.e. the Mega Millions reached $1.537 billion dollars.

What happens if more than one of the tickets sold has the winning numbers?

If there are multiple winning tickets for the American Powerball lottery jackpot, the top prize money will be divided equally among all of the winners.

When to play the Powerball Lottery?

Can I play the Powerball from overseas?

Remember, you have to be 18 years or older to buy a Powerball lottery ticket online.

Powerball Jackpot Rollovers

In the event that there is no Powerball ticket holder who has matched all the required Powerball winning numbers in the draw, the jackpot will or roll over to the next Powerball jackpot draw and increase in value.

Unlike other lotteries, the US Powerball does not have a rollover limit or a jackpot cap. As long as no one wins the American Powerball jackpot, the prize money will keep on getting bigger! This makes the US Powerball very attractive to both loyal players and to first-timers.

Interesting Facts About Powerball

Luckiest US Powerball Numbers

Number 13 has got a bad reputation as most people consider the number unlucky but it isn’t unlucky in Powerball. In fact, number 13 actually appears frequently as Red Powerball Ball. Numbers 19 and 13 are the most common numbers appearing as Red Ball.

Apart from that, data released from MUSL indicates that the top five main draw numbers for the Powerball lottery are 26, 16, 41, 22, and 32.

Number 26 number is the most frequently appearing US Powerball lottery number.

Record-breaking US Powerball Jackpots

This the favourite part for many Powerball players. As mentioned before the largest US Powerball jackpot ever was a mammoth $1.5 billion. Data released by MUSL indicates that almost 89% of the possible combinations were sold before the drawing took place on October 23, 2018.

Three ticket holders split the record-breaking jackpot prize.

The highest single winning ticket jackpot was won by Mavis L. Wanczyk on August 24, 2017, from Chicopee, Massachusetts.

Security is paramount on the US Powerball

The entire Powerball lottery preparation takes just over two hours, emphasising just how secure the game is. The American Powerball lottery uses two machines per draw. The one machine holds the main numbers and the other holds the numbers for the Power Ball.

The US Powerball lottery uses gravity-pick machines even though they resemble air-mix machines in appearance.

The Powerball lottery winning number balls begin their journey in a series of clear tubes above the drum. When the game begins, the tubes release the Powerball lotto balls into the chamber. The machines have spinning paddles at the bottom of the drum, which spin the balls randomly around the chamber. Random balls will then shoot up through a tube that is in the middle of the drum. These balls will travel outside and around the drum through a transparent tube, landing up in a clearly visible display area.

Each ball is made of solid rubber and weighs 80g. The cost per ball is $60 and each ball will last for approximately 2-3 years. The balls used are weighed regularly to ensure that there is no negligible weight difference.

In just a matter of minutes, the lucky US Powerball lottery winning numbers are drawn, with viewers unaware of all the careful preparation that has just occurred.

As you can see the Powerball lotto balls drawn are totally random making it the ultimate game of chance. This is really good as anyone can win millions of dollars and live the lotto lifestyle in a blink of an eye.

Biggest Powerball Lotto Winners

	Winner	Jackpot Amount	Lucky Numbers	Date
1	John and Lisa Robinson	US $1.586 billion	04 – 08 – 19 – 27 – 34 (10)	January 2016
2	Manuel Franco	US $768.4 million	16 – 20 – 37 – 44 – 62 (12)	March 2019
3	Mavis L. Wanczyk	US $758.7 million	06 – 07 – 16 – 23 – 26 (04)	August 2017
4	Lyrenne West	US $687.8 million	08 – 12 – 13 – 19 – 27 (04)	October 2018
5	Gloria MacKenzie	US $590 million	10 – 13 – 14 – 22 – 52 (11)	May 2013
6	Cindy and Mark Hill Matthew Good	US $587.5 million	05 – 16 – 22 – 23 – 29 (06)	November 2012
7	Anonymous Marie Holmes TL Management Group	US $564 million	11 – 13 – 25 – 39 – 54 (19)	February 2015
8	Good Karma Family 2018 Nominee Trust	US $559.7 million	12 – 29 – 30 – 33 – 61 (26)	January 2018
9	Robin Egg 2016 Nominee Trust	US $487 million	11 – 17 – 21 – 23 – 32 (5)	July 2016
10	Emerald Legacy Trust	US $456.7 million	22 – 57 – 59 – 60 – 66 (7)	March 2018

Powerball Lottery Jackpot Payout Options

Ever since its inception PlayUSALotteries.com has maintained a 100% pay-out to our winners. Being in the lottery industry for just over two decades is due to an extremely high level of professionalism and keeping our players excited and motivated.

Winning payouts are swiftly credited to your account and then accessed through the withdrawal method of your choice. Players also have the option of converting their winnings to lottery vouchers.

You can choose to have your winnings paid out either through the lump-sum or annuity payout.

• Lump-sum pay-out option

When you win the Powerball jackpot, you can choose to receive your winnings using the lump-sum pay-out option. By selecting this option, your windfall is paid out to you immediately, and you’ll receive approximately 60% of the Powerball jackpot.

The lump-sum pay-out option gives you immediate access to your windfall, allowing you to splurge on anything you want without the need to save or seek credit.

• Annuity pay-out option

The second option you have as a Powerball winner is the annuity pay-out option. In this option, you’ll receive your winnings in yearly payments for a predetermined number of years. The first payment is made out immediately, and it can take up to 29 years to complete the annuity payments.

Every annuity payment increases by 4%, making the final payment the largest. An annuity pay-out option is calculated based on the declared Powerball jackpot-winning total.

What are the chances of winning the Powerball Lottery?

Below is a table of your chances of winning any of the American Powerball lottery prizes.

Match	Winning Chances
Jackpot	1 in 292,201,338
Five (5) numbers	1 in 11,688,053
Four (4) numbers + Powerball	1 in 913,129
Four (4) numbers	1 in 36,525
Three (3) numbers + Powerball	1 in 14,494
Three (3) numbers	1 in 579
Two (2) numbers + Powerball	1 in 701
One (1) number + Powerball	1 in 92
Zero (0) numbers + Powerball	1 in 38