Diana Marchetti from Clinton Township offered to pick up some lottery tickets at a Mobil gas station for a family member. Specifically, the tickets she purchased were for the Powerball.

She then decided to purchase a few tickets for herself since she was already there buying them. Turns out, this was a great move on her part.

By purchasing her tickets, she won a total of $150,000 the next morning when she checked her tickets. If she had not have purchased those other tickets for her family member, then she would have not bought those others too.

Game Details
Purchasing Options: Online and In-Store
Ticket Cost: $2.00
Drawing Schedule: Wednesday and Saturday at 10:59 p.m.

How to Play

Players like Marchetti have to select five white ball numbers that will range from one to 69. After that, you would need to choose a red powerball that ranges from one to 26. You can also “quick pick” your numbers and allow the machine to decide for you if you do not want to pick.

For an additional dollar, you can add the option to have the Power Play. Marchetti added this feature to her own tickets, which caused her $50,000 prize to be multiplied by three.

This can turn out to be a great investment since your prizes could be multiplied by either 2X, 3X, 4X, 5X, or 10X the prize amount. Just keep in mind that the 10X multiplier will not be available if the prize amounts exceed over $150 million.

For players that are able to win a large jackpot, they will have two options they need to consider when claiming those prizes. Players can spread it out over a 30-year annuity or have a majority of it cashed out.

The 30-year option will put you closer to actually paying out the full amount to you. These offer a different tax advantage as compared to a lump sum amount.

Odds, Price, and Prizes

The overall odds of winning a single prize for the Powerball are one in 25. Even further, the odds of winning the jackpot prize are one in 292,201,338.

In order to increase these chances, you can simply buy another ticket in hopes of a larger prize. Before you do this, make sure you have the available funds to cover this method since each ticket is $2 and then another $1 for additional features.