The Powerball. It is one of the most popular lottery games in the United States, and it has the ability to turn someone from a working-class citizen to a multi-millionaire overnight.

However, do not get too excited yet, because the odds of winning the coveted jackpot are 1 in 292.2 million.

So, how can you improve your chances of winning Powerball drawings? This is a quick guide to how Powerball games work.

Basic Rules

The Powerball costs $2 to play, and you have to be at least 18 years old to buy a ticket. Drawings are held three times per week on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays at 11:59 P.M. EST.

When you go to buy a Powerball ticket, the goal is to match six numbers on your ticket to the drawing. You must match all six to win the jackpot prize.

The six numbers will be five regular numbers ranging from 1 to 69 and then from 1 to 26 for the coveted red Powerball. You have the option of choosing these six numbers yourself or having them selected for you at random.

Powerball Drawings Prizes

Now, let’s get to the important part for you. How much money do you win if you hit the right numbers from the Powerball drawing?

Well, the jackpot is the biggest prize, matching all six of the numbers on your ticket. This can start as low as $40 million but increases every time no winner is claimed. If this lasts a long time, the jackpot prize can reach hundreds of millions of dollars.

However, the jackpot is not the only way to get a prize from a Powerball lottery drawing.

If you match the five regular balls, then you can walk away with a cool $1 million. Matching four regular balls plus the red Powerball carries a prize of $50,000.

Then, the prizes start to drop off significantly, but there is still a cash prize if you match at least the red Powerball. Any combination of four numbers gets you $100, any combination of three numbers gets you $7, a regular ball and the red Powerball has a $4 prize. The red Powerball alone gets you your money back for your Powerball ticket.

Power Play

If you want to increase the prizes that you can get from the smaller number combinations, one option you have is to pay an extra dollar for the Power Play.

This option can increase lottery prizes by 2x, 3x, 4x, 5x, or even 10x. That number is decided on a random drawing before the main drawing.

That can potentially turn a $50,000 prize above into a $500,000 prize!

However, note that the $1 million prizes have a maximum multiplier of 2x, meaning $2 million is the maximum amount of money awarded from that number combination.

Go Win the Powerball

These are just some of the basic rules for playing Powerball drawings. Now, all you have to do is buy a ticket and get in on the action.

Read some of our other Money articles for more related information.