Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years
Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years
Robert Eggleston purchases a Powerball ticket at the Big Horn Co-op convenience store Friday afternoon in hopes of winning the nearly $500 million cash jackpot tonight.
WORLAND - Looking for the big pay day? So are many area residents with an increase in the past week in sales for tonight's Powerball drawing and Monday's Cowboy Draw drawing, all part of the Wyoming lottery.
Patsy Endicott, employee at the Pony Express in Ten Sleep, said Friday she started seeing an increase in sales in both Powerball and Cowboy Draw in the last two or three days.
Why the increase interest? The Powerball estimated jackpot as of Friday at about 10 a.m. was at $496 million, with an estimated annuitized jackpot of $800 million. The drawing is at 8:59 p.m. tonight. Sales close at 7:59 p.m.
According to the Associated Press, a winner would have the option of being paid $800 million through annual payments over 29 years or opting for $496 million in cash.
Powerball is played in 44 states as well as the District of Columbia, U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.
The Cowboy Draw was drawn Thursday with no apparent jackpot winner. The jackpot is at just over $1 million. The next drawing will be at 2 p.m. on Monday with sales closing at 1:45 p.m.
Big Horn Co-op convenience store in Worland has seen ticket sales for both lottery games at least double, according to assistant manager Chris Strauch. She said the increase started last week. "We've seen sales about double if not more," she said.
At Blair's, owner Kent Foulger said, "We've seen a 10 percent to 20 percent increase the last few weeks; ever since they projected the jackpot to be over $500 million.
At Exxon Southside in Thermopolis, employee Skyler McClure employee said they always see an increase in the Power Ball the day before the draw. Last week, he said, sales were at least doubled. "
"There's a lot of interested people," he said. Friday morning he said they have had some sales for Power Ball but there "hasn't been quite as much as last week ... yet."
The Cowboy Draw tickets are $5, but the Wyoming Lottery notes that it is only available in Wyoming, thus better odds for winning.
Tickets for the Powerball are $2 with the odds of winning 1 in 292 million.
The third game in Wyoming's Lottery is Mega Millions with the cash jackpot at $100 million. The drawing was Friday night.
For more information go to wyolotto.com.
