As Wednesday’s Powerball jackpot swells to nearly a quarter of a billion dollars, the Virginia Lottery is spotlighting Prospector’s Gold.
In fact, if you purchase at least $10 worth of Powerball tickets, you get 10 free plays of the online instant game as a bonus.
This Prospector’s Gold promo is a sure-fire way to get VA Lotto players focused on the Wednesday, Aug. 11 Powerball drawing. Of course, with a jackpot of more than $240 million, folks probably already had at least one eye on it.
Still, here’s everything you need to know about this VA Lottery promotion.
Buy Powerball, get Prospector’s Gold
Powerball drawings take place Wednesdays and Saturdays at 10:59 p.m. (with Monday drawings also soon to debut). The odds of winning the Powerball jackpot are about 1 in 292 million. Despite the popularity of the multi-state draw game, jackpots hit fairly infrequently because of those ridiculously long odds.
In fact, you have to go all the way back to June 5. That’s when a Florida player matched all five white balls plus the Powerball to win a jackpot of $285.6 million. The jackpot then reset to $20 million, and it’s been steadily increasing during the past two months.
Now, for the August 11 Powerball drawing, it had reached $241 million as of Wednesday morning.
You can purchase Powerball tickets online on the Virginia Lottery website. In fact, you can purchase up to five tickets each for the next four drawings with a single Virginia Lottery purchase.
Just make a purchase of at least $10 worth of Powerball tickets (they’re $2 each with an optional $1 Power Play to boost non-jackpot wins). If you do so before Wednesday, Aug. 11, at 11:59 p.m., you’ll get 10 free games of Prospector’s Gold.
Will you strike it big with Prospector’s Gold?
Prospector’s Gold is one of the Virginia Lottery’s many online instant games.
However, this one contributes to the recently revealed Big Money Jackpots. These three online progressive jackpots include a Jumbo Jackpot worth more than $69,000, as of Wednesday morning.
Here’s the official Prospector’s Gold game description:
“Make a cluster of three or more of the same symbol to win a prize. If you make more than one cluster during a round, your prize will multiply. Find three Big Money Jackpots symbols for a chance to win one of the three Big Money Jackpots: Express, Great or Jumbo.”
For the non-bonus games, Prospector’s Gold can be played from 50 cents per play up to $20.
While there, you can also check out the other Big Money Jackpots instant win (“online scratcher“) game: Cash Buster Multiplier.
Don’t forget about Mega Millions
While you’re buying Virginia Lottery tickets online, don’t forget about the Mega Millions drawing.
Like Power Ball, the jackpot for Mega Millions has also swollen in recent months. No one has won the big prize since a Mega Millions player in Illinois scooped up a $56 million jackpot on June 8.
Now, the jackpot for the Friday, Aug. 13 Mega Millions drawing has reached $225 million, as of Wednesday morning.
Also like Power Ball, though, the odds of winning the Mega Millions jackpot are astronomical: 1 in 302.6 million.
