Should You Buy Power Play On Your Powerball Ticket? The Extra Dollar Can Be Taxing

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Powerball. Whether you've spent hours calculating the perfect set of numbers or plan on leaving it all to the computer, you would probably do anything to get a leg up in this battle for the billion. Some people have chosen to spend an extra dollar for the Power Play option, which is a way of multiplying your winnings if you somehow win second place or below. But let's face it, the odds of getting anything are undoubtedly stacked against you. So should you use the Power Play option on Powerball? It might be a waste of your precious dollar

To give you a sense of how competitive this thing really is, you should know that you have a one in 292.2 million chance of winning the jackpot tonight. According to NBC News that is comparable to flipping a quarter and getting heads 28 times in a row. Even if you buy a thousand tickets, your chances don't increase in any significant way than if you buy one. So can spending an extra buck really make a difference? In all honesty, you're probably just throwing your money away. Your odds of winning are just so ridiculously slim

That being said, although nobody won the jackpot Saturday night, 25 players won $1 million, and three chose the Power Play option, landing them with $2 million. Of the 451 people who won $50,000, 55 chose the Power Play option and doubled their winnings. In smaller jackpots, the Power Play option can multiply winnings up to 10 times, but due to the enormity of this Powerball, non-jackpot winners can only double (though I don't hear anyone complaining about a $2 million reward). So while your chances are just as slim if you choose Power Play, if for some astounding reason you win a chunk, that chunk gets a lot bigger