Wash. lottery launches Powerball

o Fred Meyer, 7411 N.E. 117th Ave.

o Fred Meyer, 16600 S.E. McGillivray Blvd.

o 7-Eleven, 11703 S.E. Mill Plain Blvd.

o Fred Meyer, 11325 S.E. Mill Plain Blvd.

o Fred Meyer, 7700 N.E. Highway 99

The top five sales outlets for the state are all in King County.

Source: Washington State Lottery

o Powerball tickets are $1 each and can be purchased at nearly 4,000 retailers across Washington.

o Five white balls are drawn out of a drum with 59 white balls; one red ball, the Powerball, is drawn out of a drum with 39 red balls.

o You can pick the numbers or let the machine do it.

o Nine prizes are awarded in Powerball drawings; $3 is the smallest award.

o Drawings happen at 7:59 p.m. Wednesdays and Saturdays.

Esther Skilling, 35, of Cascade Park is ready to be a millionaire.

At least she gave herself a chance by buying a single $1 Powerball ticket on Sunday, the first day the state began allowing Powerball sales.

And what would she do if she won the $107 million jackpot?

“Pay bills, buy a house, a car. … Help out Haiti,” she said after her purchase at the 7-Eleven store at 11703 S.E. Mill Plain Blvd. Skilling seems deserving as she and husband Wayne have two boys, two girls and are caring for a niece and nephew.

So, were the Powerball tickets flying out the door Sunday?

“It’s a little slower today; somebody just hit the Mega Millions last Friday and I believe it was $144 million,” said Karla Forehand, a manager at the store. “Monday’s a busier Lotto day.”

She and sales associate Bill Harris said some customers did not realize Powerball sales had started.

“We got Powerball today, honey,” Forehand cheerfully said to a woman who is a store regular.

Before Sunday, Mega Millions was the only multistate lottery game in Washington. It’s been offered since 2002 in the Evergreen State.

Under an agreement reached last year, the Powerball and Mega Millions games are cross-selling in about 40 states where one or the other had been offered alone. The Washington Lottery continues to sell Mega Millions tickets.

State lottery officials say Powerball jackpots have been as high as $365 million.

Forehand said her store sells 600 to 1,000 tickets a day for the seven major lottery games. The store had a jackpot winner in the past and had a $275,000 second-place winner in December 2008. The store also was the top lottery sales outlet for 435 stores in the area for December, Forehand noted.

In downtown Vancouver at the Plaid Pantry, 514 Washington St., sales associate Kyle Congdon said he had sold 56 Powerball tickets compared to 18 Mega Millions tickets in the first four hours of his Sunday afternoon shift.

“People are loving it (Powerball),” Congdon said. “People feel lucky. People are glad they don’t have to drive across the bridge to get their Powerball tickets.”

The downtown Plaid Pantry is a rebuilt store that once was Day & Nite Market, one of the most successful lottery sales outlets in Washington. Over the years, Day & Nite produced six jackpot tickets.

Washington Lottery officials say the state has provided more than $2.5 billion to state programs since tickets were first sold in 1982.

The state receives 50 cents on the dollar of tickets sold but must pay various expenses including vendor expense, advertising and promotions, lottery officials say.

Skilling could find out Wednesday if she is a millionaire. If no winner is found. she will have another chance Saturday at an even bigger pot.

Oh, by the way, the odds of winning the Powerball jackpot on a $1 ticket are 1 in 195,249,054.