Powerball jackpot at $825M: Stores flooded with customers
Last Powerball winner was Aug. 3; prize is fifth-largest in history.
Area retail lottery locations were hopping Friday and are expected to be today before the Powerball jackpot drawing, which is estimated at $825 million.
No one has matched all six numbers and won the Powerball jackpot since Aug. 3, allowing the prize to grow to the fifth-largest in U.S. history. That amounts to 36 consecutive drawings without a jackpot winner. The next drawing is Saturday.
At Bee-gee’s Market in Kettering on Friday customers were clamoring to purchase tickets. Jackie Porter, floor manager at the store, told the Dayton Daily News people who don’t gamble or often buy Powerball tickets flood her store when the possible winnings are high.
Porter said her market is known as the “lucky store.”
“We’ve sold several million dollar winners. People drive in from all over the place to buy their tickets here,” Porter said.
Tim Thomas of Springboro was buying his tickets Friday at the Marathon in Springboro.
“You can’t win if you don’t buy a ticket,” Thomas said, who added he would buy each of his family members a new house if he won.
The lack of a winner since August reflects the long odds of winning the grand prize, which are one in 292.2 million.
The new $800 million jackpot amount is for winners who take their winnings through an annuity, paid annually over 29 years. Nearly all winners actually choose the cash option, however, which would be $383.7 million after taxes.
The biggest lottery jackpot to date was a $1.586 billion Powerball prize that three ticket holders won in 2016.