Is the Powerball Power Play Worth It?

Every time you buy a Powerball ticket, the terminal asks a simple question: do you want to add Power Play for an extra dollar? It sounds like a reasonable upgrade. Your non-jackpot prizes get multiplied. You could win more. But is the extra dollar actually worth spending?

The short answer is no, not from a pure expected-value standpoint. The longer answer involves understanding exactly what Power Play does, what it does not do, and when adding it might make slightly more sense than other times.

What Power Play Actually Does

Power Play is an optional add-on that multiplies the value of non-jackpot prizes. For an extra $1 per ticket, any prize you win below the jackpot level is multiplied by the Power Play number drawn that night. The multiplier is drawn separately from the main numbers and can be 2x, 3x, 4x, 5x, or 10x.

There is one important exception: the $1 million Match 5 prize, awarded for matching all five white balls without the Powerball, is always doubled to $2 million when Power Play is active. This doubling applies regardless of which multiplier is drawn that night.

Power Play never applies to the jackpot. If you match all six numbers and win the jackpot, the Power Play add-on has no effect whatsoever on your prize.

How the Multiplier Is Drawn

The Power Play multiplier is not drawn with equal probability for each number. The wheel is weighted toward lower multipliers:

• 2x — drawn most frequently, roughly 55 percent of the time
• 3x — drawn about 30 percent of the time
• 4x — drawn about 7 percent of the time
• 5x — drawn about 5 percent of the time
• 10x — drawn about 2 percent of the time, and only available when the advertised jackpot is below $150 million

Taking those probabilities into account, the average Power Play multiplier when the jackpot is under $150 million is approximately 2.7x. When the jackpot exceeds $150 million and the 10x is off the table, the average drops to around 2.6x.

The Expected Value Math

To evaluate whether Power Play is worth it, you need to look at the expected value of the non-jackpot prizes and how much Power Play adds to them.

The non-jackpot prizes in Powerball range from $4 for matching just the Powerball up to $1 million for matching all five white balls. The combined expected value of all non-jackpot prizes on a standard $2 Powerball ticket is roughly $0.32. That means on average, for every $2 ticket you buy, the non-jackpot prizes return about 32 cents in expected value.

Power Play costs $1 and multiplies those prizes by an average of about 2.6x to 2.7x. So the extra $1 turns approximately $0.32 in expected non-jackpot value into roughly $0.85. The net effect: you spend $1 more and gain about $0.53 in expected value from non-jackpot prizes. That is a negative expected return of about 47 cents per dollar spent on Power Play.

For context, the base $2 Powerball ticket itself has a negative expected return at most jackpot levels, so Power Play is not uniquely bad compared to lottery tickets generally. But it is a worse bet than the base ticket on a per-dollar basis.

When Power Play Makes the Most Sense

If there is a scenario where Power Play is more defensible, it is when the jackpot is small, specifically below $150 million. At that point the 10x multiplier is available, which creates a small tail probability of a very large non-jackpot win. The average multiplier is also slightly higher in this scenario.

There is also an argument for Power Play if you are specifically targeting the Match 5 prize rather than the jackpot. The guaranteed doubling of a $1 million prize to $2 million on a Match 5 is a better deal than the average multiplier would suggest. The odds of hitting Match 5 are about 1 in 11.7 million, so this is still a long shot, but the Power Play guarantee on that specific prize is the best deal the add-on offers.

When Power Play Makes the Least Sense

Power Play makes the least sense when the jackpot is large. Once the advertised jackpot exceeds $150 million, the 10x multiplier is removed, the average multiplier drops, and the extra dollar returns the least value relative to what it costs. Ironically, this is precisely when most people are buying tickets and most likely to add Power Play, drawn in by the excitement of a large jackpot.

If your primary reason for playing is the jackpot, Power Play adds nothing to the thing you are actually hoping for. The add-on only affects prizes you have already decided are secondary.

What About Mega Millions' Megaplier?

Mega Millions offers a nearly identical add-on called Megaplier, which works on the same principle: an extra fee per ticket multiplies non-jackpot prizes by a randomly drawn multiplier of 2x, 3x, 4x, or 5x. Mega Millions recently raised its base ticket price to $5, and the Megaplier costs an additional fee on top of that. The same expected-value logic applies: the Megaplier costs more than it returns in expected non-jackpot value.

The Bottom Line

Power Play is not a scam, and it is not egregiously overpriced. It is simply a bet with negative expected value, which describes every lottery product on the market. Relative to the base ticket, it offers less value per dollar spent.

If you enjoy the extra tension of watching the multiplier draw, or if you are specifically hoping for a large non-jackpot prize rather than the jackpot itself, Power Play is a reasonable entertainment choice. If you are trying to maximize your expected return within a fixed lottery budget, skipping Power Play and buying one more base ticket is the better play mathematically.

And if you do happen to win the jackpot, you will be glad Power Play or not does not matter. Use our calculator to see exactly what you would take home after taxes on any jackpot amount.