WEST DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – The 29 lotteries that participate in the Powerball game have voted to make changes that will boost the average jackpot size but decrease the chance of winning.

Starting Aug. 29, the beginning jackpot will increase to $15 million from the current $10 million, the Multi-State Lottery Association announced Wednesday. The top prize will grow by no less than $5 million between each drawing.

“Lottery games need to be changed from time to time, to respond to both player demands and population changes,” said Randy Davis, president of the Louisiana Lottery Corp. and chairman of the Powerball Game Group.

To boost the jackpot size, two numbers will be added to the first pool in the game, meaning players will choose five numbers from one to 55. The current first draw picks five white balls from a pool of 53.

The Powerball is drawn from a separate pool of red balls numbered from one to 42. That will not change.

The larger number of white balls decreases the chances of winning the jackpot to 1 in 146.1 million. The current game has jackpot odds of 1 in 120.5 million.

Ed Stanek, Iowa Lottery chief executive and one of Powerball’s co-inventors, said the changes are part of a popular product’s evolution.

“Players tell us they expect large jackpots in the game and we will continue to deliver those,” Stanek said.

The chance of winning a cash prize in the game will be cut slightly, to 1 in 36.60 from 1 in 36.06, lottery officials said.

Another change in August will be to double the prize for those players who match the first five numbers but miss the Powerball. They’ll win $200,000 instead of the current $100,000.

A record 110 tickets across the nation matched the first five numbers in the March 30 drawing. Many of the winners apparently picked their numbers from the message in a fortune cookie.

Just one ticket, bought by a family in Tennessee, matched all six numbers to win the $25.5 million jackpot.

There was no jackpot winner in Saturday’s drawing, worth $12 million.

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