What Do You Win For Matching 5 Out Of 6 Powerball Numbers?

You play Powerball because you want to win the massive jackpot, right? Of course, that’s why we all play. But, surely, you must know that Powerball also offers a pretty good second prize, right? It does, and it’s also a life-changing amount of money.

How many numbers do you need to match to win the second prize in Powerball? You need to match 5-out-of-6-numbers. How much do you win for matching 5-out-of-6 numbers, then? Well, it depends.

First of all, you can’t just match any 5 numbers to win the second prize. No, you have to match the first 5.

Previously, if you matched the first 5 numbers, you would have won $250,000. That was before Powerball changed its rules on January the 15th, 2012. The rules changes implemented on that day, partly, resulted in bigger prizes. The previous $250,000 prize was increased to $1 million. Not bad, wouldn’t you say? That’s a four-fold increase. That’s good for Powerball players!

However, you don’t always win $1 million by matching 5-out-of-6 Powerball numbers. Sometimes you can win twice that amount – $2 million. How? Read on to find out.

It costs $2 to buy a Powerball ticket. However, you can spend an extra dollar to purchase the PowerPlay option. That means, if you choose to purchase the PowerPlay option, your Powerball ticket will cost $3.

What does the Powerplay option give you? This is what it does – If you match 5-out-of-6 Powerball numbers (The first 5) and if your ticket includes the PowerPlay option, the $1 million prize that you would have won gets doubled to $2 million.

How do you like that? For an extra dollar you win an extra million dollars. Not bad at all! $1 million is a lot of money, but $2 million is just so much better.

You’re probably interested to also know what the odds are of winning the $1 million (Or $2 million second prize). I’ll tell you – The odds of winning it are 1-in-5,153,632. Those are long odds, but at least they are much better than winning the jackpot. The odds of winning the jackpot are 1-in-175,223,510.

What do you think? Do you like the fact that the prize amount for the second prize in Powerball is bigger now? Do you like the fact that you have the ability to make it even bigger with the PowerPlay option? I know I do!