§ 871.9. Powerball prize payments.
(a) Individual ticket prize payments will be paid entirely in cash with the exception of the grand prize category.
(b) A grand prize shall be paid by an annuity except that a player may elect to receive the grand prize in a single cash payment provided the cash election is made by the player within 60 days of the date the Lottery determines that a grand prize winning ticket has been sold and that a player is entitled to the prize.
(1) An election to receive the grand prize by annuity or cash made by the player after the player becomes entitled to the prize is final and cannot be revoked, withdrawn or otherwise changed.
(2) Shares of the grand prize shall be determined by dividing the cash available in the grand prize pool equally among all winners of the grand prize. A winner who elected cash payment shall be paid the share in a single cash payment.
(3) The annuitized prize shall be determined by multiplying a winner’s share of the grand prize by the MUSL annuity factor.
(c) The MUSL annuity factor is determined by the best total securities price obtained through a competitive bid of qualified, preapproved brokers made after it is determined that the prize is to be paid as an annuity prize or after the expiration of 60 days of the date that the player becomes entitled to the prize.
(d) Neither the MUSL nor the Lottery shall be responsible or liable for changes in the advertised or estimated annuity prize from the time the drawing occurs and the date that the player makes the election regarding method of prize payment.
(e) All annuitized prizes shall be paid in 25 annual payments with the initial payment being made in cash, to be followed by 24 equal payments funded by the annuity. The initial payment of an annuitized prize may be made by the Lottery upon validation of the winning ticket.
(f) If the individual shares of the cash held to fund an annuity is less than $250,000, the MUSL Powerball Product Group, in its sole discretion, may elect to pay the winners their share of the cash held in the grand prize pool as a lump sum.
(g) If more than one winning ticket for the grand prize is determined, upon meeting the requirements of § § 871.12 and 871.13 (relating to ticket validation requirements; and procedures for claiming and payment of Powerball prizes), each is entitled to a prorated payment share of the total grand prize category.
(h) A winning Powerball play is entitled only to the highest prize won by those numbers.
(i) The number of prize categories, the allocation of prize money among the prize categories and the annuity term may be changed at the discretion of the MUSL and the change will be announced by public notice. These changes will only apply prospectively to Powerball drawings as of the date specified in the public notice.
(j) Retailer incentive and marketing promotion programs, including the use of funded free tickets, may be implemented at the discretion of the Secretary. Funds for the programs, if needed, will be drawn from the Lottery fund.
(k) If the grand prize is not won in a drawing, the prize money allocated for the grand prize shall roll over and be added to the grand prize pool for the following drawing.
(l) Prize claims shall be submitted within 1 year of the drawing date.
(m) Annuitized payment of the grand prize or a share of the grand prize may be rounded to facilitate the purchase of an appropriate funding mechanism. Breakage on an annuitized grand prize win shall be added to the first cash payment to the winner or winners. Prizes other than the grand prize, which under this chapter may become single-payment, parimutuel prizes, may be rounded down so that prizes can be paid in multiples of whole dollars. Breakage resulting from rounding these prizes shall be carried forward to the prize pool for the next drawing.
Cross References This section cited in 61 Pa. Code § 871.13 (relating to procedures for claiming and payment of Powerball prizes); and 61 Pa. Code § 871.22 (relating to changes to Powerball).
No part of the information on this site may be reproduced for profit or sold for profit.
This material has been drawn directly from the official Pennsylvania Code full text database. Due to the limitations of HTML or differences in display capabilities of different browsers, this version may differ slightly from the official printed version.
