powerball became available in florida on january 4, 2009; the first drawing including florida was january 7. powerball jackpots start at $40 million; it is drawn wednesday and saturday nights at 10:59p.m. since october 7, 2015, players choose 5 of 69 "white balls", and a red-colored "powerball" out of 26 numbers from a separate pool. the odds of winning the jackpot per play are 1 in 292,201,338. each draw costs $2, or $3 with the "power play" option. (previously, powerball plays cost $1; when powerplay began, such games were $2.) the official cutoff for ticket sales is 10:00p.m. eastern time, with some lotteries cutting off their sales earlier.