Lately there have been quite a few big lottery jackpots and the I-Team wanted to find out why. Lolita Lopez reports for the NBC4’s I-Team on Feb. 3, 2023.
Another jackpot is at stake this week, with the Powerball climbing to $700 million for Saturday’s drawing.
It comes just a month after a Mega Millions ticket worth more than $1 billion was sold in Maine. And back in November, a Powerball ticket worth more than $2 billion was sold in Altadena.
The I-Team wanted to find out why there seems to be so many huge jackpots now taking place.
“So there's a couple of reasons that we think are fueling higher jackpots more often,” said Carolyn Becker, a spokesperson for the California Lottery.
Get top local stories in Southern California delivered to you every morning. Sign up for NBC LA's News Headlines newsletter.
“In 2015 and 2017 respectively, both the multi state games that everybody knows—Powerball and Mega Millions—changed what we call the matrix, which is the number of numbers a player has to choose from.”
She says there are now 69 white Powerball numbers to choose from—up from 59. There’s also a different number of red balls.
“So when they changed the matrix, it changed the odds of the game. And that was by design to fuel more jackpots,” Becker told the I-Team.
More numbers to choose from also means its harder to win the Powerball jackpot. The odds of winner are now 1 in 292 million.
Becker also points to higher jackpots attracting more players, who buy more tickets. And more tickets sold means the jackpots climb higher and higher.
In addition, Powerball tickets now cost $2 each now, which has added to the total prize money for each drawing.
