Did U.K. players change Powerball? First drawing offers early clues

The first-ever Powerball drawing to include players from the United Kingdom is now in the books. This was a historic milestone for the multi-state draw game. Yes, it's far too early to determine how much the expansion will affect future drawings, but the results from that first drawing offer an interesting snapshot.

Wednesday's drawing featured more overall prize winners than Monday's drawing, but it also gave us no jackpot winner and no Match 5 winners. At the same time, the game's international debut sparked some controversy online, as some U.S. players are questioning whether the expansion is good for the lottery.

More winners, but no top prizes

For the July 22 drawing, it was the first drawing where players in the United Kingdom could purchase tickets for the same Powerball jackpot as players in the United States, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Powerball officials said that expanding the player base should help jackpots grow faster while leaving the game's odds and $2 ticket prize unchanged for U.S. players.

For Wednesday's drawing, the estimated jackpot was $570 million, so it was a great time for U.K. players to join in the fun. For the drawing, the winning white ball numbers were 4, 5, 22, 50, and 58, and the Powerball number was 1 with a Power Play of 3X.

When looking at the overall winners, something sticks out right away. There were no jackpot or Match 5 winners.

In addition, there were slightly more prize-winning tickets sold than on Monday night, the last drawing without U.K. players being involved. This might suggest the larger player pool led to more winners. That could be the case, but there are other factors to consider.

As jackpots rise, more people buy tickets. Powerball was at $570 million, so we could have just seen a bump in ticket sales in the U.S. because more people want to win the bigger jackpots.

For now, this is only after one drawing. We'd need far more data to make an evidence-based decision.

U.K. players start with almost 88K winners

Yes, there were no jackpot or Match 5 winners in last night's Powerball drawing. However, there were 87,698 players winning prizes, according to U.K. lottery officials.

When looking at Monday's and Wednesday's drawings, there were almost 570K tickets winning prizes during Monday's drawing. On Wednesday, there were almost 670K tickets winning prizes. That is a jump of 100K winners.

We saw an increase of 100K winning tickets. Lottery officials in the U.K. stated there were almost 88K winners from last night's drawing. Those are similar numbers, so the increase in prize winners could be tied to the winners coming out of the U.K.

Not everyone is celebrating

While most players welcomed the chance to compete for one of the world's biggest lottery jackpots, some people were far less enthusiastic.

We started to see social media quickly filling with complaints from some U.S. players. Several of them were claiming the game is now “rigged,” or they are saying they plan to stop playing the game because international players have joined in on the fun.

One person wrote, “Money laundering. Ain't no way this is legal,” while another person added, “So now someone across the world can win, and no one can verify. Sounds like the state, keeping the money.”

The threats of not playing anymore came out big time. One player said, “Never playing again,” while another one added, “I'm not playing Powerball anymore,” and a third person wrote, “And I'm out.”

The true impact of this all will be determined over time, but for now, we can watch and see how it plays out before our very own eyes.

Enjoy playing the lottery, and please remember to play responsibly.