Ohio Harness Horsemen's Association

Ohio Gets Powerball

April 13, 2010

Ohioans are days away from another opportunity to confront the longest of odds to win jackpots reaching into the hundreds of millions of dollars. Beginning Friday, Ohio will join 41 states, Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands in offering Powerball, which requires players to match five numbers out of a pool of 59 and another number out of a pool of 39 to claim the jackpot.

Odds of winning are 1 in 195 million, and the current grand prize is $175 million.

Tickets go on sale Friday at all of the Ohio Lottery's 8,800 retailers. The first drawing is scheduled for Saturday. The Ohio Lottery already offers another multistate game, Mega Millions, with similarly stratospheric odds and prizes. Early this year, a panel of U.S. lottery directors allowed the 12 states that had Mega Millions to offer Powerball, and the 33 states that had Powerball to offer Mega Millions.

Last year, Ohioans bought $193 million in Mega Millions tickets. The game accounted for 8 percent of the lottery's overall business.

State lottery spokeswoman Jeannie Roberts said the lottery conservatively estimates $30 million a year in Powerball ticket sales, with about one-third of the money going toward public schools.

"Powerball is an established brand, and it's popular in other states and it's very similar to Mega Millions," Roberts said. "We expect that the same sort of player will enjoy both games."

Several states began offering both Powerball and Mega Millions at the end of January.

"We're about in the middle of the pack, and this allows us to see how other states have done and learn from them," Roberts said.

Ohio retailers who sell Mega Millions tickets can offer Powerball after downloading software from the lottery to use with existing equipment. "We expect it to go smoothly," Roberts said.

Church groups sued to block Ohio from participating in Mega Millions in 2002, but the move to Powerball hasn't been controversial. The Ohio Lottery Commission and a legislative panel did not object to rules for the new game.

Chad Rasul, co-owner of M&S Carryout on Georgesville Road on the West Side, said he expects the new game to cushion the big fluctuations in Mega Millions sales that are tied to jackpots.

"Whichever one has a higher jackpot, I expect people will play it rather than leave the state," Rasul said. "The hope is that over the long term, you can merge both games to get a higher jackpot."

Like Ohio, Illinois offered only Mega Millions before adding Powerball this year. Illinois Lottery officials estimated

$54 million in annual profit from the new game.

Although Illinois has had Powerball since the end of January, the state has not released sales numbers yet.

"In general, our players have been pretty happy to see a new game offered here," Illinois Lottery spokesman Tracy Owens said. "It's helped keep some of our players in the state. Some people who would follow the big jackpots to neighboring states are staying and playing the game here in Illinois."

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Ohio Gets Powerball