Powerball is a multi-state lottery game formed in 1992. It runs in 21 states of America as well as Puerto Rico, District of Columbia, and in the US Virgin Islands. It is one of the biggest lottery games in the world. Its latest jackpot prize was $768.4 million which a 24-year old Manuel Franco won on 27 March 2019. This prize was the third largest in the history of US lottery.
Powerball also has the record of awarding the biggest lottery prize in history, about $1.856 billion dollars in January 2016. Since then its popularity rose and people who didn’t even have heard about it started playing it and now millions of people around the world play it, belonging to different countries.
Of course, chances are very less of winning the jackpot, but people win and win every year. So, the first rule to win the jackpot is that you have to play it. And, after you have decided to play it, there are some rules and regulations that you need to keep into considerations.
You have to be at least 18-year-old or above to play the Powerball lottery. You can play it from any country, given that the lotteries are not banned by the law. To start playing you have to pick five numbers and an additional Powerball number. You can pick five numbers from the range of 1-69 and the Powerball number from 1-26. If you wish to win the jackpot you have to match all the five numbers and the Powerball number.
Winners are drawn every Saturday and Wednesday and are announced live on the television, its official website, and in the newspapers.
The jackpot prize starts at $40 million dollars and increases with every draw till a winner is picked i.e. it is not necessary that a winner will be picked at any draw. So, the jackpot grows and grows till all the number matches a participant ticket. It grows by a minimum of 10 million dollars after every draw.
But the jackpot is not the only thing that you should keep your eye on. You can win other smaller prizes as well. You can win prizes between $2 and $20,000 in every draw depending on how many numbers are matched. If you match only the Powerball you will win $4 and if you match the five numbers but not the Powerball number you can still become a millionaire.
The jackpot winners can choose to take the money as an annuity or as onetime payment. If the winner chooses the annuity option, he will get the prize money over the course of 29 years. Annuity increases by the 5% every year and it continues till the 30th payment or the final payment is received.
Lottery prizes are also subjected to taxation. The percentage of taxation depends on your nationality. If you are a citizen of the US then you are charged less and for the non-citizens charges vary and are somewhat higher. It is quite possible that you may be subjected to taxation in your state depends upon the policy of your state you belong to.
If you are interested in buying the Powerball tickets you can do it from Giantlottos.com. It provides real tickets online. Here is the link of the website:
https://www.giantlottos.com/lotto/usa-powerball
Latest Results: https://www.giantlottos.com/results/usa-powerball
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