At Kavanagh Liquors in San Lorenzo, which has sold five winning tickets worth at least $1 million, there has been a line out the door for the past two weeks, clerk Gail Eist said.
Advertisement
The Minnesota State Lottery oversees several statewide drawings and operations of some multistate lotteries, including Powerball, offering a record estimated jackpot of $1.5 billion Wednesday night.
According to Connecticut Lottery officials, the estimated cash value of the January 13 drawing is $930 million before taxes, and tickets can be purchased for $2 at any one of more than 2,800 retailers throughout the state.
It’s already the largest lottery jackpot in the world.
A Canadian jackpot victor could expect to take home about $1.5 billion (US$1.05 billion) after taxes, though winnings are reduced if the money is taken in a lump sum.
Powerball is played in 44 states, the District of Columbia, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.
Anxious wanna-be billionaires will be searching online for the Powerball winning numbers tonight, but why not watch the live drawing of the six lucky numbers – you will find out instantly if you can call your boss and say, “I quit!”? Even lottery tickets with a partial match can pay out a prize of as much as $1 million. Monday’s sales hit $3.6 million.
The winning numbers for the $1.5 billion (and growing) jackpot will be at 10:59 p.m. on Saturday (check back for an update as soon as the numbers are picked). The Iowa Lottery says total day sales every day this week are running four to five times higher than last week and that was a record too. That means residents of states without Powerball are driving to neighboring states to play the lottery and probably spending money on gas, soda or snacks in the process.
Before you head out in a frenzy to buy tickets, here are some other numbers to consider.
The grand prize eclipses historic lottery prizes by a substantial margin.
“Yeah, I bought a few”, said guard Trai Turner. California exempts lottery winnings from state income taxes if the ticket was purchased in-state.
Advertisement
The real catch is it is near impossible to print roughly 292 million lottery tickets.
