Salon.com > Lottery

California powers $550 lottery jackpot

Fri, 17 May 2013 12:33:00 +0000

SAN DIEGO (AP) — The numbers sum up the frenzy that has taken over the Golden State since it became the newest in the nation to join the madness over Powerball, which saw its jackpot soar Thursday to $550 million.

California has sold $83 million worth of Powerball tickets since it started selling them in April and overall has accounted for 11 percent of the game's sales in the country, fueling such fast-growing mega-jackpots like the latest one that has the potential to be a record-breaker.

The state expects to generate well above the originally estimated $50 million for public education, California lottery director Robert O'Neill told The Associated Press.

"One thing California has brought Powerball is sunshine and good fortune," he said. "It has surprised us. We're very happy."

Californians have Nevadans to thank for some of that good fortune.

California's biggest ticket-seller is the Primm Valley Lotto Store, which straddles the state line in tiny Nipton, a 19th century mining and ranching town on the edge of the Mojave desert whose booming lottery sales have put it on the map in modern times.

Roxie Handley figured all 80 of its residents would have a ticket in hand by Saturday. That's if they can find the time.

Dumb tweet of the day: An Obama-Satan connection?

Wed, 12 Dec 2012 22:56:00 +0000

[embedtweet id="278981955092086784"]

Powerball jackpot winners in Arizona and Missouri

Thu, 29 Nov 2012 16:43:00 +0000

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Two lucky ticket holders - one in Arizona and another in Missouri - are waking up Thursday to new lives as multimillionaires after the largest Powerball jackpot drawing ever.

Powerball officials said two tickets matched all six numbers to win the record $587.5 million jackpot. The numbers drawn for Wednesday night, for the second-highest jackpot in U.S. lottery history, are 5, 16, 22, 23, 29. The Powerball is 6.

It was not clear whether the winning tickets belonged to individuals or were purchased by groups.

One of the winning tickets was sold at a Trex Mart convenience store in Dearborn, Mo., about 35 miles north of Kansas City, the state lottery commission said in a news release.

Earlier Thursday, Missouri Lottery spokesman Gary Gonder said he was on his way to the store that sold that ticket to assist with the expected onslaught of media attention. That store will be awarded $50,000 for selling the winning ticket.

It did not appear Wednesday's big winner had yet come forward.

Dumb tweet of the day: The humble shall inherit the jackpot

Wed, 28 Nov 2012 22:40:00 +0000

With little earthly evidence to go on, one Twitter user has high hopes for divine justice and the winner of tonight's $550 million plus Powerball jackpot:

[embedtweet id="273918209952997378"]

Powerball’s dark side

Wed, 28 Nov 2012 15:12:00 +0000

"What we sell is dreams," Colorado's State Lottery director Abel Tapia told USA Today.

Today, Tapia is right -- the dream market is booming before tonight's Powerball lottery which has a jackpot of more than $500 million, the largest ever.

Powerball, which is sold in 42 states,Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands, has not had a winner in two months, rolling over the prize money and culminating in a ticket-buying frenzy today. Americans across the country who do not regularly play the lottery are shelling out for a one-in-175 million chance at Romney riches.

On days like this, when the promise of mega winnings turns the lottery into a news story, it seems its least pernicious. Local and national papers are flush with cheerful tales of comfortable, middle class Americans waiting in long gas station lines to buy a handful of tickets, joining offices pools and spinning cliched yarns about retiring in luxury on a desert island.