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Powerball jackpot world’s largest at $1.3 billion

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ASSOCIATED PRESS

G. Ramos, right, of Miami Beach, Fla., buys Powerball lottery tickets from cashier Lourdes Miranda at El Presidente Supermarket, Friday, Jan. 8, 2016, in the Little Havana neighborhood of Miami, as the multi-state jackpot reaches $900 million. With ticket sales doubling previous records, the odds are growing that someone will win Saturdays record jackpot, but if no one wins the top prize, next weeks drawing is expected to soar past $1 billion.

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ASSOCIATED PRESS

Samir Akhter, the owner of Penn Branch Liquor, exchanged money for Powerball tickets today in Washington.

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In this photo made with a fisheye lens a clerk hands a patron his $10 worth of chances for the upcoming Powerball drawing on Saturday, Jan. 9, 2016, in Cranberry Township, Pa. The Powerball jackpot has reached a record $900 million, with the drawing Saturday night. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)

OMAHA, Neb. » Disappointed you didn’t win the Powerball jackpot this weekend? Don’t be.

Lottery officials say the prize has now swelled to an estimated $1.3 billion — the world’s largest. Ever.

“Biggest jackpot in the history of the world. Absolutely confirmed,” Texas Lottery executive director Gary Grief said.

The jackpot is so big that billboards in Texas and around the country have to advertise the price as $999 million because they’re not built to show billions. The lottery computers will handle the decimal point without a problem.

No one matched all six Powerball numbers Saturday night, leading to the astronomical prize. And that is all but certain to grow before the next drawing Wednesday, according to lottery officials.

“We’ve never been at these levels,” said Grief, whose state lottery is part of the Multi-State Lottery Association that runs Powerball.

The odds to win are one in 292.2 million. Seventy-five percent of all the possible combinations were purchased before Saturday’s drawing, Grief said, and he expects that enough tickets will be sold to cover about 80 percent by Wednesday. About 95 percent of Powerball tickets have computer-generated numbers.

“I’ve been in the industry over 20 years, and I’ve seen jackpots hit when we hardly have any of the potential numbers covered — like 5 percent of the possible combinations covered. And I’ve seen other jackpots when we’ve had 95 percent of the combinations covered and it rolls,” Grief said.

The jackpot has ballooned since its Nov. 4 starting point of $40 million and spurred huge ticket sales.

In Omaha, Les Wheeler said he probably overdid it by buying $30 worth of tickets for Saturday’s drawing with a few friends, but they plan to do the same for this next jackpot.

“I didn’t expect to win, but I had big dreams,” said Wheeler, 53. He said a new home in another state away from Omaha’s 16-degree temperatures were at the top of his wish list.

Saturday’s winning numbers — 16-19-32-34-57 and Powerball number of 13 — did gain some people a little wealth: 25 tickets won $1 million by matching five numbers, and three other tickets won $2 million because they paid extra to multiply smaller prizes.

Darryl Collins, of Phoenix, and his husband each won $24 from the 70 Powerball tickets they bought. They plan to use that money toward buying more tickets for the new, higher jackpot. Collins said it was a shock that nobody won.

“It was like only 500 people who missed it by one number,” Collins said. “It shows you how hard it is to win.”

The 55-year-old real estate agent said he and his husband would definitely share the wealth.

“I would give a lot of it to family and friends,” Collins said. “Who needs that much money?”

Michael Montecelo, a security guard in San Francisco’s financial district, said he spent $20 on Powerball tickets and hasn’t yet checked if he won anything. He said he will buy another $20 worth of tickets even if thinking about winning more than a billion dollars scares him a bit.

“I think I would go into a state of anxiety, but it would be a good anxiety,” he said, smiling.

Montecelo, 50, said he would retire and donate some of that money and work on administering the rest.

“I would have to open an office and get a team of experts. I think my job would be to keep tabs on that money,” he said. “That would be a full-time job.”

The record jackpot lured an unprecedented frenzy of purchases. Between Jan. 6 and Saturday’s drawings, more than $900 million in Powerball tickets were sold.

Officials expect similar sales before the next drawing, but Grief said it’s hard to predict how excitement about the record jackpot will boost sales.

“It’s exponentially greater than any sales that any of the states involved have ever seen,” he said.

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Associated Press writers Terry Tang in Phoenix and Olga R. Rodriguez in San Francisco contributed to this report.

17 responses to “Powerball jackpot world’s largest at $1.3 billion”

  1. mikethenovice says:

    Nice job, SA. Keep teasing the residents of Hawaii who are not eligible to play the lottery.

  2. seaborn says:

    In Georgia, the lottery offsets the costs of college for students. In Georgia, there are many different programs/scholarships available as long as a student maintains a 3.0 grade point average, the lottery pays the in-state college tuition, up to 4 years. Hawaii should get in the lottery program. Hawaii could establish the same type of programs for students attending UH, and/or use funds for upgrading schools, roads, water pipes (which want to burst all the time), establish housing/services for the homeless, offset costs of the rail, etc. The possibilities are endless.

  3. st1d says:

    masquerading tax ploy preying on the poor and gullible. oh, yeah, i got my tickets yesterday.

  4. 8082062424 says:

    maybe this will be my lucky year

  5. Bdpapa says:

    Sure like to drop a couple bucks on this!

  6. KahalaRealtor says:

    Bought myself 50 tickets from a friend on the mainland. Anyone that replies to my post, I’ll donate some of my winnings to you!

    • WizardOfMoa says:

      You can’t have someone buy the tickets for you. You have to go to there to purchase those tickets. Thanks for the thought of sharing with anyone replying to your post provided you overcome its illigality! However, use my share for the homeless – a couple of millions is too much for me! I’ll stick to my manini social security payment! Thanks and bless you for your generosity! 🙂

    • mikethenovice says:

      I don’t take from the poor.

  7. sailfish1 says:

    Sadly, Hawaii people don’t have the opportunity to play Powerball or any other lottery. I think 44 out of 50 states allow lotteries – why does Hawaii not allow it?

    • cholo says:

      we do have the opportunity … it’s just harder for us since we have to fly to the mainland to buy tickets and play

    • mikethenovice says:

      Hawaii wants us to earn money the old fashioned way with a minimum wage job.

    • Giligan says:

      Spineless Hawaii politicians.

    • serious says:

      According to Google, Hawaii residents spend over $1 billion gambling in Las Vegas each year. Whenever a lottery bill comes before the legislature just watch the “campaign” contributions come in from the gambling interests under the guise of “To protect our children form the vises of gambling” or some other head fake slogan. It’s all political–just raise property taxes or the sales tax rather than the lottery!!!

  8. mikethenovice says:

    Whoever wins this could have their own zip code. Plan on getting a lot of mail from people you never met before claiming to be part of your family.

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