When it comes to lotteries, South Africa Powerball is certainly one of the world’s most popular. It is also very generous when it comes to the prizes on offer, something which keeps players from all over the world coming back to it time after time.
If you live outside of South Africa, though, you might be wondering just what the Powerball actually is. Well, it’s a lottery that is offered in 44 South Africa states, as well as South African territories like the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. It is coordinated by a non-profit organisation, the Multi-State Lottery Association.
The advertised jackpot for the lottery is R700 million. This can be paid in 30 instalments as an annuity or in a lump sum. That sort of prize sounds very tempting indeed, but can you play this lottery if you live outside South Africa, or you are not an South African citizen? Well, yes you can, is the good news.
Here, we’ll tell you all about South Africa Powerball, and how you can buy tickets and play the lottery if you live in South Africa. You can find out the rules you need to follow, as well as when the lottery is drawn and how much it costs. Read on to find out all you need to know about playing South Africa Powerball lottery!
So if you want to play South Africa Powerball lottery and you live in the South Africa, what do you have to do? Well, the good news is that getting your hands on a ticket for this lottery is not difficult at all.
All you need to do is to go online and find one of the websites that offer the facility to buy tickets. There are several websites that offer you this service, and some of them will actually have a proxy in the South Africa go out and buy a ticket on your behalf. The best website to use for this is The Lotter. Lottoland is another decent option. The website basically acts as a middleman for your lottery participation. You do not need to worry that any prizes you win will be claimed by anyone else.
In the next section of this guide, we will give you a step-by-step simple guide on how to buy a South Africa Powerball ticket online. As you will see, it really is a very easy process and not something that is complicated or difficult at all. You do not need to be a South Africa citizen to participate or to claim your prize, should you win.
Here is an easy to follow, step-by-step guide to buying a South Africa Powerball lottery ticket from The Lotter. We recommend this website as one of the most convenient and simplest to use, though there are others out there too.
The Lotter also offers a ‘See My Ticket’ service. This allows you to see a scan of all and any of the tickets that you have purchased to participate in South Africa Powerball lottery. Additionally, you can opt to be part of the website’s subscription service. This means that you will automatically be entered in each draw. The Lotter also offers you every 10th draw for free.
So now you know the basics on how to actually buy a ticket for South Africa Powerball, how does this lottery actually work? In this next section we will give you more details about the rules of the lottery, draw times, prices and where you can find the results. After all, there is no point buying a lottery ticket if you’re never going to know whether or not you have won.
So, the first thing that you need to know about when it comes to South Africa Powerball Lottery is how many numbers are used. There are 69 white balls used in the lottery which carry standard numbers. There are also 26 red Powerballs. The numbers on the red balls can be the same as any of the numbers on the white balls.
The order that the white balls are drawn in does not matter, as the results will always show these numbers in ascending order. You cannot use a red ball with the same number as one of your choices to match two balls. At draw time, the white balls are drawn from a separate machine to the red balls.
So how many of these white and red numbers do you need to pick? You need to choose five of the white numbers. These run from one to 69. You also need to pick one of the red numbers to act as your Powerball. These numbers run from one to 26. You can also add a Powerball multiplier to boost your winnings for an extra fee.
Your prize winnings will depend on how many of these numbers you can match. The jackpot is paid out for all five numbers and the Powerball. A chart displays the odds of winning the various prizes in the next section of this guide.
This chart allows you to see what the odds are of you picking up a prize of any kind in South Africa Powerball lottery. Your approximate overall odds of winning any kind of prize are one in 25.
|
Matched |
Odds of winning |
Prize |
|
Five main numbers plus Powerball |
One in 292,201,338 |
Jackpot |
|
Five main numbers |
One in 11,688,054 |
R20million |
|
Four main numbers plus Powerball |
One in 913,129 |
R900,000 |
|
Four main numbers |
One in 36,525 |
R1,800 |
|
Three main numbers plus Powerball |
One in 14,494 |
R1,800 |
|
Three main numbers |
One in 580 |
R150 |
|
Two main numbers plus Powerball |
One in 701 |
R150 |
|
One main number plus Powerball |
One in 92 |
R70 |
|
Powerball only |
One in 38 |
R70 |
Obviously, if you have bought a ticket in South Africa Powerball Lottery you will want to know when the results are announced. Powerball draws take place on a Wednesday and a Saturday at 10.59 Eastern Standard Time, in Florida Lottery Studio in Tallahassee, Florida. Eastern Standard Time is five hours behind Greenwich Mean Time, so if you are in South Africa the draw takes place in the early hours of the morning.
A single line entry in South Africa Powerball lottery costs just R40. Obviously you will want to boost your chances of winning and save money, by buying lines in more than one draw. The Lotter website makes this very easy to do, with a number of options available according to your needs.
You can buy a series of bundles from The Lotter too. These combine personal and syndicate entries for you to boost your chances of winning. In South Africa, you can pick up 12 lines plus personal entry for R250, 200 lines plus personal entry for R250 and 265 lines plus personal entry for R450
In order to check the results, you need to refer to the lottery ticket provider that you have chosen. If you have opted to use The Lotter, you need to head over to their website after the draw to see the results and find out if you have won.
When you see the results, you need to check these things:
For an extra R20 a game, you can activate the power play option when you buy your ticket. If you activate this option, you can multiply winnings of R900,000 or less by up to five, or even 10, if the jackpot is under R2,700 million. The Power Play number is drawn separately from the main six numbers. The five numbers plus no power ball prize is double to R40 million if the Power Play option is activated.
Here are the five biggest winners of South Africa Powerball Lottery:
|
Winner |
Date |
Prize |
|
Split three ways between Jon & Lisa Robinson, Maureen Smith & David Kaltschmidt, Marvin & Mae Acosta |
13/01/2016 |
R30 billion |
|
Manuel Franco |
27/03/2019 |
R14,000 million |
|
Mavis Wanczyk |
23/08/2017 |
R13,500 million |
|
Split between Lerynne West and Robert Bailey |
27/10/2019 |
R12,500 million |
|
Gloria MacKenzie |
18/05/2013 |
R10,500 million |
As we mentioned earlier in this guide, there are two ways that your winnings can be paid if you manage to collect one of South Africa Powerball’s jackpot prizes. You can have your prize paid to you in one really big lump sum, which would certainly give your bank account a very big, very sudden boost. You usually receive this prize in two separate payments.
But if you are the type of person who would like to enjoy a steady income over a number of years, then you can also have your prize paid to you as an annuity. What does this mean? Well, basically your prize will be divided into instalments that will be paid at regular intervals over the course of your life. Due to considerations like inflation, this also means that you would receive slightly more money than if you opted for the one large payment.
A jackpot prize for South Africa Powerball lottery can be paid out as an annuity in 30 instalments. Each of these instalments will be 5% higher than the previous one, to compensate for factors such as inflation.
The advertised expected jackpot is the total of the payments that would be due to a jackpot winner is the total amount that would be paid to them if they opted to receive the prize as annuity payments. You do not generally have to choose between a lump sum cash payment and an annuity f you win one of the lottery’s lesser prizes.