The Powerball and Lucky for Life games are adding more drawings later this year.
Iowa Lottery spokesperson, Mary Neubauer, says Powerball is going to add a Monday drawing along with the Wednesday and Saturday drawings — while the Lucky For Life game will move from two drawings to a drawing every night.
Powerball is nationwide, while the Lucky For Life game involves Iowa and 15 other states. Neubauer says the changes are in response to the feedback they’ve been getting.
“Players are looking for bigger, faster-growing jackpots in games like Powerball and MegaMillions. And so, the change in Powerball is designed to help deliver those bigger, faster-growing jackpots,” Neubauer says. “When you have another drawing in the mix every week it would mean more tickets being sold and that way the jackpot would grow more quickly.”
The big jackpots in the games have lagged since the pandemic. “We’re an instant gratification society — and this is a way to speed up the pace of the games a little bit,” she says. Neubauer says more drawings don’t change your odds of winning a jackpot.
“Even though extra drawings are being added in the game — it does not change the rest of the specifics in the game, ” according to Neubauer. “So the prize levels are staying the same, the odds of winning, the ticket price is all the same, it’s just that there will be more drawings per week.”
The Lucky for Life game will change first. “The first daily drawings in that game begin on July 19th. And then the changes in Powerball will occur in August — with Powerball moving to three drawings a week. The first Monday drawing in that game will happen on August 23rd,” she says.
You can win the Powerball jackpot by matching all six numbers selected in the drawing, while the Lucky for Life game gives players a daily shot at winning its top prize of $1,000 a day for the rest of their lives.