No, no, not the jackpot*, just the Power Ball. One little number, the actual Power Ball number, number nine, at the end of the line. An important number, but on its own, worth only $3.
They said the tickets were either one dollar or two, without explanation. I suggested we pay only one but Carolyn, dispensing with her Scottish frugality, paid two. We were on holiday after all.
Turns out the second dollar pays for the Power Play option which multiplies non jackpot prizes by a multiplier randomly determined at the time of the draw, a number between two and five. On our draw the multiplier was x5, inflating our win from $3 to $15.
Carolyn bought us nine tickets, one ticket for each of the nine of us visiting at that time. Divide our $15 win by nine and you have about $1.66 a pop. About enough to split three fruit smoothies at the Dancing Avocado Kitchen three ways each.
Now if Carolyn remains in the holiday spirit she won’t be asking for her $18 stake back (9 x $2) else, technically, she’s $3 down and might split the loss nine ways and want 33c from each of us!
*Wouldn’t that have been nice at $146 million?
