Washington Gears up for Powerball Lottery - 01-28-10

January 28 - Lottery fans in the U.S. state of Washington are gearing up for Sunday night, when they'll be able to buy USA Powerball lottery tickets for the first time. At just $1 each, Powerball lottery tickets will be available at over 4000 retailers across the state from Seattle to Spokane to Tacoma.

Washington was finally able to offer the Powerball lottery because of state legislation passed in April last year, along with permission granted by the Multi-State Lottery Association in October. And Washington is not alone as from this week nine other U.S. states will also be able to offer the Powerball.

Said Washington State Lottery spokesperson, Jacque Coe, 'We are hoping that Washington State will make as much as $30 million a year from Powerball sales within the next few years.'  The state will receive 50 cents from every Powerball ticket sold, while the remainder goes towards the prizes.

Up until now Washington's lotto fans have enjoyed playing Mega Millions and eight other lotteries, but now they can add the Powerball lottery to the list, playing alongside players from other Powerball states. Wednesday's Powerball jackpot will reportedly kick off at a none-too-shabby $20 million.

Powerball lottery draws will take place every Wednesday and Saturday evening at 7:59 pm PST. Unlike the Mega Millions lottery, to play the Powerball, lottery fans must choose five numbers from a set of numbers from 1 through 59, and one Powerball number from a set of number 1 through 39.

The great thing about the Powerball lottery is that the jackpot frequently rolls over, which means it frequently skyrockets into hundreds of millions of dollars. It is precisely for this reason that it is has become of the most popular national lotteries in the United States.

Since 1982, Washington's lottery games have generated over $2.5 billion for economic-development and state education programs.