news-record.com

RALEIGH -- Tar Heel Powerball players get in on a new game starting today. They have a better chance of winning and can win more, but they'll pay more for the privilege.

The game has been revamped and approved by the Multi-State Lottery Association, raising the prize for a correct, five-number pick to $1 million and the payoff for a Power Play ticket to $2 million.

A basic ticket will now cost $2 instead of $1, however.

North Carolina lottery officials said pots will start at $40 million now, instead of $20 million, after someone strikes it rich in a drawing and will ramp up faster when no one wins. The last pot under the old system was $66 million for Saturday's pick.

Officials said the chances of winning any prize at all will be one in 31.8, better than the one-in-35 before. The chances of winning a jackpot will go from one in 195 million to one in 175 million.

The first five numbers drawn will range from one to 59, as before, but the Powerball will go up to only 35 as of today. It had ranged from one to 39.

For a comparison of how the game changes outcomes, officials calculated that if the new game had been how Powerball was played last year, they would have paid 17 people $1 million instead of $200,000. Nine players would have won $2 million instead of $1 million.

North Carolina officials said they think higher prizes will trump higher prices.

Alice Garland, the state lottery's executive director, said in a statement, "The improvements ... should make it more popular and lead to higher Powerball sales and consequently more money for education in North Carolina."

Powerball is played in 42 states, the District of Columbia and the Virgin Islands.