The Australia Powerball is a local take on the popular US Powerball lottery, bringing huge jackpots and great secondary prizes to the southern hemisphere. Australia Powerball isn’t the only lottery to be inspired by US Powerball’s enormous success – New Zealand Powerball and South Africa Powerball have also borrowed the US Powerball’s winning formula.
Tatts Group operates Australia Powerball through the Lott and its subsidiaries throughout Australia: New South Wales Lottery in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory, Tattersalls in Victoria, Golden Casket in Queensland, and South Australian Lotteries in South Australia. Lotterywest, a government-owned company, operates Powerball Australia in Western Australia.
Since Australia Powerball’s first draw on May 23, 1996, there have been several jackpots as high as AU$100 million! Australia Powerball usually has one winner per jackpot, whereas US Powerball jackpots often have multiple winners. Prizes won in Australia Powerball are paid tax-free. US Powerball winners pay federal tax and possibly state taxes, as well.
How to Play Australia Powerball
Playing Australia Powerball is a little different from playing US Powerball. For each ticket, you have to choose 7 main numbers from 1-35 and a Powerball number from a guess range of 1-20. US Powerball, on the other hand, requires players to select 5 main numbers from a guess range of 1-69 and the Powerball from a guess range of 1-26.
The official draws for the Aussie Powerball are held once a week on Thursdays at 20:30 AEST. Australians can purchase tickets from their local lottery retailers. Australia Powerball is also available online to players worldwide on theLotter. With this easy-to-use lottery messenger service, anybody can play the most exciting game from Down Under.
The Australia Powerball Prizes
There are 9 prize categories in the Australia Powerball, including the jackpot. To win the first prize, players have to match all the 7 main numbers and the Powerball. The minimum amount for the jackpot is AUD3 million. With each rollover, the prize gets bigger and bigger and it can reach some outstanding amounts.
This lottery does not feature a cap for its first prize, which means that the jackpot can grow indefinitely. The current record stands at a whopping AUD107 million, which was won in by a woman from Sidney in January 2019.
But there are eight other prizes to win in the Australia Powerball and each one is worth playing the game. In the table below, you can see the full prize list for the Aussie lottery:
| Prize | Match | Prize Distribution | Odds of Winning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st Prize | 7+PB | 35% (Min. AUD3 M) |
1 in 134,490,400 |
| 2nd Prize | 7 | 1.8% | 1 in 7,078,443 |
| 3rd Prize | 6+PB | 1.1% | 1 in 686,176 |
| 4th Prize | 6 | 2% | 1 in 36,115 |
| 5th Prize | 5+PB | 1.5% | 1 in 16,943 |
| 6th Prize | 4+PB | 9.7% | 1 in 1,173 |
| 7th Prize | 5 | 7.6% | 1 in 892 |
| 8th Prize | 3+PB | 15% | 1 in 188 |
| 9th Prize | 2+PB | 26.3% | 1 in 66 |
Winning the Australia Powerball
Did you select all 7 main numbers and the Powerball correctly? Congratulations, you’ve won the Powerball Australia jackpot! As an added benefit, you are not required to pay taxes on your winnings to the Australian state. Then, depending on the tax laws in your country, you may have to pay some taxes there.
As you can see in the table above, the odds of winning the Australia Powerball are far better than those in the American version of the game. To win the US Powerball jackpot, you have to beat odds of 1 in 292,201,338. Even though the prizes are bigger in the American version of the game, the chances of winning the Australian Powerball jackpot are exponentially better at 1 in 134,490,400.
Play Australia Powerball Online
Playing Australia Powerball online is legal, convenient, and fun! Simply choose your numbers online, just like you would in person, except with a mouse instead of a pen, and a lottery ticket messenger service buys a physical ticket that matches your online entry. The messenger service scans and uploads your ticket to your account and keeps the actual ticket in a safe in case it’s a winner.
Try it! Play Australia Powerball online today!