--- title: Why the Powerball Jackpot Has Soared So High So Quickly description: The new rules for Powerball promised worse odds and bigger prizes, yet the jackpots have increased even faster than anticipated. authors: - name: Brad Tuttle role: Senior Editor url: https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/ bio: Brad Tuttle is a former senior editor at Money with over 10 years’ experience covering a vast number of personal finance topics, including careers, cars, travel, budgeting, investing, insurance, credit cards, consumer psychology, real estate, banking, and shopping and deals. education: Columbia University School of Journalism, MS at_money_since: 2014 articles: 366 covers: - Personal Finance - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Economy and Politics - Education - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Pets - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology social: - https://twitter.com/bradrtuttle - https://linkedin.com/in/brad-tuttle-834b225 former_staff: true published: '2016-01-11T17:22:58.000Z' modified: '2024-04-16T09:41:21.000Z' section: Personal Finance tags: - gambling - Lottery - Powerball word_count: 419 canonical: https://money.com/powerball-jackpot-odds/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![Customers wait in line at the Blue Bird Liquor Store to buy Powerball lottery tickets in Hawthorne, California on January 9, 2016.](https://img.money.com/2016/01/160112_em_powerballsohigh.jpg) *Customers buy Powerball tickets in Hawthorne, California on January 9, 2016.* When it was first floated last summer that the odds of winning Powerball would be tweaked, statisticians and everyday lottery enthusiasts noted two main takeaways: **1)** The odds of winning big would be worse, increasing from 1 in 175,223,510, to 1 in 292,201,338. **2)** The odds of an eye-popping $1 billion jackpot becoming a reality would get better. The second observation is a direct consequence of the first one. When no one wins, a significant portion of the latest round of Powerball revenues is rolled over into the next jackpot. So, in a brilliantly diabolical scheme, the lottery associations have managed to create more Powerball players (thanks to inevitably huge jackpots) by reshaping the rules to create more Powerball losers (thanks to worse odds). Interestingly, while everyone knew the Powerball jackpots would soar, they've climbed even higher and quicker than what was widely anticipated. The [new rules](https://money.com/powerball-lottery-new-rules-odds/) went into effect in October. An analysis by [FiveThirtyEight](http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/new-powerball-odds-could-give-america-its-first-billion-dollar-jackpot/) showed that as a result of the rule changes, the likelihood of a jackpot hitting an unprecedented $1 billion increases dramatically: > Under the old (1 in 175,223,510) odds, there was a billion-dollar lottery in only 8.5 percent of the simulated five-year periods. But under the new (1 in 292,201,338) odds, there was a billion-dollar lottery in 63.4 percent of the simulated five-year periods. Obviously, with the [Powerball surging to $1.5 billion](https://time.com/4175332/powerball-jackpot-lottery-2/) for the drawing this Wednesday, we've crossed the $1 billion mark far faster than expected. How did this happen? To a large degree, it's a matter of simple chance. Players have been "lucky" that no one has won the grand prize for 19 drawings in a row, boosting the jackpot higher and higher each time. There also appears to be somewhat of a snowball effect, with Powerball ticket sales skyrocketing past anticipated levels as the jackpot grows and grows. Last week, excitement built as Wednesday's drawing came closer and the jackpot rose from $400 million (as originally forecast) to [$500 million](https://money.com/powerball-lottery-jackpot/) before ticket sales were shut off. A similar phenomenon took place during the buildup to the next drawing, on Saturday, with forecasts first calling for a grand prize of $700 million. That was already a record high. But by Saturday night, the jackpot was up to $900 million. Nobody matched all six numbers on Saturday, and the jackpot for the next drawing, on Wednesday, Jan. 13, was initially announced at $1.3 billion. By midday on Monday, it was up to $1.4 billion. And we've still got two more days to go! ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/powerball-jackpot-odds/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Personal Finance", "item": "https://money.com/personal-finance/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Making Money", "item": "https://money.com/making-money/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Why the Powerball Jackpot Has Soared So High So Quickly" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/powerball-jackpot-odds/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/powerball-jackpot-odds/", "name": "Why the Powerball Jackpot Has Soared So High So Quickly", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2016-01-11T17:22:58.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/powerball-jackpot-odds/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/powerball-jackpot-odds/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-04-16T09:41:21.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "Why the Powerball Jackpot Has Soared So High So Quickly", "articleSection": "Personal Finance", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2016/01/160112_em_powerballsohigh.jpg", "width": 2100, "height": 1481, "caption": "160112_EM_PowerballSoHigh" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Brad Tuttle", "url": "https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/#author", "description": "Brad Tuttle is a former senior editor at Money with over 10 years’ experience covering a vast number of personal finance topics, including careers, cars, travel, budgeting, investing, insurance, credit cards, consumer psychology, real estate, banking, and shopping and deals.\r\n\r\n", "image": "https://img.money.com/2014/01/Brad-Tuttle.png?w=226&h=247&crop=1", "alumniOf": "Columbia University School of Journalism, MS", "sameAs": [ "https://twitter.com/bradrtuttle", "https://linkedin.com/in/brad-tuttle-834b225" ] } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2016-01-11T17:22:58.000Z", "description": "The new rules for Powerball promised worse odds and bigger prizes, yet the jackpots have increased even faster than anticipated.", "abstract": "The new rules for Powerball promised worse odds and bigger prizes, yet the jackpots have increased even faster than anticipated.", "@id": "https://money.com/powerball-jackpot-odds/", "inLanguage": "en-US", "dateModified": "2024-04-16T09:41:21.000Z", "wordCount": 419, "keywords": [ "gambling", "Lottery", "Powerball" ], "about": [ { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Personal finance", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_finance" ] }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Income", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Income" ] } ] } ] } ```