New Monday Powerball Drawing Will Give Season Ticket Holders Extra Chance

On Monday, I was talking about Powerball and the Massachusetts State Lottery giving players more chances to win with the addition of a new third drawing. A weekly Monday drawing will join Wednesday and Saturday night drawings at 10:59 p.m.

In a wink of the eye, a regular caller was asking how the additional Monday night drawing "will impact the game's odds and size of jackpots."

"This is going to turn into a dilemma, and that's not all," he said. "Let's say I had a season ticket. Looks like I ain't gonna have a chance to win the Monday night jackpot with my season ticket that was supposed to cover every Powerball drawing. That's not right."

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I can't tell you the hundreds of times callers bring up great points that send me out to investigate. So I went to Steve Martins, Assistant Director and Regional Manager for the New Bedford office of the Massachusetts State Lottery, who explained it clearly and thoroughly.

"Anyone who has a season ticket with an expiration date beyond Monday, August 23, will receive a free play each week to keep them active in all draws, until their season ticket expires," he said.

In other words, the upset caller has nothing to be upset about. In fact, the new Monday night add-on will give players another chance to win the jackpot.

What about the odds and the jackpots? Would adding another drawing decrease anything? Martins assured that adding a third drawing won't change either the game's odds or set cash prizes, and that everything stays the same.

Martins also pointed out something interesting. Season Tickets are being sold at discount prices right now. Discount prices like when a store has a discounted sale? The short answer is yes; save money right now by purchasing discounted priced season tickets at masslottery.com or call (781) 519-7244, 8:45 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday-Friday.

New Bedford and the SouthCoast loves to play the lottery. If, as the saying goes, "all good things come in threes," then adding a third Powerball drawing sounds like a winner.