DES MOINES, Iowa — The allure of capturing the estimated $425 million Powerball jackpot had players in a buying frenzy Wednesday, further confirming a trend that lottery officials say has become the big ticket norm: Fatigued Powerball players, increasingly blasé about smaller payouts, don’t get into the game until the jackpot offers big bucks.
A recent game change, intended to build excitement about the lottery, increased the frequency of huge jackpots, and Wednesday’s jackpot drawing comes only a few months after the biggest Powerball jackpot in history — $590 million won in Florida by an 84-year-old widow.
The second-largest Powerball jackpot was won in November and split between two tickets from Arizona and Missouri.
With a majority of the top 10 Powerball jackpots being reached in the past five years, lottery officials say smaller jackpots don’t create the buzz they once did.
“We certainly do see what we call jackpot fatigue,” said Chuck Strutt of the Multi-State Lottery Association. “(I) remember when a $10 million jackpot in Illinois brought long lines and people from surrounding states to play that game.”
The way casual players define a major jackpot has changed. Behavioral economist George Loewenstein said people judge things in relative terms.
“We compare things,” he said. “If there are a lot of jackpots, even though they’re all enormous numbers, people are going to start comparing them, and if there are billion-dollar jackpots, then 100 million jackpots that used to feel enormous are going to seem much smaller.”
