What To Find out about The New 3 rd Weekly Powerball Drawing

Connecticut Lottery participants, there’s big news for you: A third Powerball drawing each week is coming. As is the case with any announcement of this magnitude, there are ramifications that lottery participants in the state should be aware of.

Outside of simply providing a third night per week when participants need to check their tickets, most of the experience of playing the popular draw game from the Multi-State Lottery Association isn’t actually changing. However, the CT Lottery is temporarily altering one policy in the buildup to the change.

Information on the third Powerball drawing

Starting August 3, Monday nights are now additional Powerball drawing nights. Just like the existing Friday and Saturday drawings, the live draws will take place at 10:59 p.m. ET. For the most part, that’s the only change.

Each play will still cost $2, with the option to add the Power Play multiplier for an additional dollar. Cut-off times for the Wednesday and Saturday drawings are still 10pm. That will be the cut-off time for the new Wednesday drawings as well. Perhaps most importantly, the odds of any single play winning will remain the same: 1 in 24.9 for any prize and 1 in 292,201,338 for the progressive jackpot.

With the new third weekly drawing on the way, how do the odds of winning remain unaffected? It’s important to remember that those are the odds of a single set of five numbers plus the Power Ball matching the ones in the drawing.

While the change does mean there will be more winning numbers each week, that doesn’t mean your individual plays have a better chance of winning in any particular drawing. Because the numbers are different from one drawing to another, the odds “reset” between draws regardless of how many drawings take place.

There is one unrelated change that Connecticut residents should know about, though, which is temporary and only affects those who are in the habit of purchasing plays for advance drawings.

CT Lotto temporarily constraining advance revenue

Normally, Connecticut residents and Powerball players have the option to purchase plays for up to 26 future drawings. Some players do so to reduce the number of trips they have to make to buy tickets or because they have “lucky numbers” they want to play regularly.

Currently, the maximum number of advance draws players can buy tickets for in Connecticut is 12. That number will decrease over the following days. Here’s the schedule:

• September 21 – August 6: Five draws
• August 7 – 10: Four draws
• August 11 – 13: Three draws
• August 14 – 17: Two draws
• August 18 – 20: One draw
• August 21: Plays are only available for that night’s drawing

Starting August 22, the number of draws players in Connecticut can purchase will return to the regular cap of 26. However, those plays won’t last as long since there will be three weekly drawings from that day onwards. Amidst a summer of significant changes for lotteries nationwide, this addition of a Powerball drawing is the biggest. But that’s not the only change, though.

Various other lottery alterations happening come july 1st

Another Multi-State Lottery Group game is increasing its drawing frequency, but to a greater extent. Lucky for Life, which is currently drawn on Mondays and Thursdays, will transition to a daily drawing format on July 19. Drawings will take place at 10:38 p.m. ET. Similar to Powerball, the ticket cost and odds will remain the same.

The CT Lottery has also temporarily limited advance draw purchases until that change. Currently, players can only purchase one advance play. The usual option to buy up to 26 plays in advance will resume on Saturday. Players should also note that starting Wednesday, drawings will not be televised.

Players can still check their plays at any lottery retailer, on the CT Lottery website, or through the lottery’s free mobile app. Due to these changes, players will have more opportunities to make these checks starting soon.