Does Powerball have Mega Millions envy?

As reported in a previous post, Mega Millions changed its rules to make jackpots harder to win when California joined the club. This paid off immediately. There were no winners, and the jackpot just got bigger and bigger until it reached $170 million, and was won by a group of six co-workers in Ohio.

The Powerball folk were green with envy. "The players are just beating the game," Iowa Lottery President Edward Stanek said Monday. "We had 11 Powerball jackpot winners the year before, and we have had more than a 50 percent increase for the fiscal year just ended."

More winners means smaller jackpots and, as every lottery director knows, it's the multi-million dollar jackpots that get everyone buying tickets.

Major changes are coming for Powerball next month that are intended to lure more players who want bigger jackpots. "The overall odds will be going from about 1 in 122 million to 1 in 146 million," Stanek said. "The goal is to have the average jackpot somewhere above $90 million when won, and to achieve jackpots in the range of $200 million to $300 million more often."

Starting August 28, 2005, the guaranteed starting jackpot will increase from $10 million to $15 million and the prize for players who match the first five numbers will be doubled to $200,000.

Two white balls will be added to the first pool of numbers in Powerball drawings, meaning players will choose five from 55. The Powerball pool will remain at 42. This increases the total number of combinations to 146,107,962, just slightly more than Stanek's estimate.

NetLotto will be changed to reflect the new Powerball rules as soon as they come into effect, and the change distributed free of charge to all NetLotto users.