The Powerball lottery first started in 1988. The original name of the casino was Lotto America when the gameplay and the name was changed in 1992.The first drawing was in April of that year and immediately resulted in a winner. The lottery used a two drums which gave the players a bigger chance of winning the jackpot and the other prizes offered. This two drums concept was than adopted by the Big Game Lottery (Mega Millions), the Australian Powerball, Thunderball in England, EuroMillions and Eurojackpot. In 1996 the Powerball lottery hit the road and held drawings in different places. For example, five drawings were held at the Olympic summer games in Atlanta.
Cashout option in 1997
In 1997 the annuity was changed from 20 to 25 yearly pay-outs. Furthermore the cash out option was introduced. For now, the annuity consists out of 30 yearly pay outs which will increase with 5% each year. In March 2001 the multiplier powerplay option was added to the game. This gave players who did not have won the jackpot the chance to double their other winnings. The Powerplay number was drawn by spinning the wheel which was custom made for this one and only option.
Based on statistics, people discovered a growth for the winning chances of players from 1:146 million to 1:195 million. The jackpot grew up to $20 million with rollovers of $5 million. Besides this, the powerplay option was adjusted and the second place received a multiplier of 5 times. This made the 5+0 prize reaching a astonishing $1 million cash. In the same year, Florida became the host of the Powerball drawings. The first spinning wheel was done working and instead of this wheel a Random Number Generator (RNG) would be used.