It’s hard saying no to a chance at $1.5 billion. Even for people who don’t usually play the lottery, the record jackpot is too tempting to resist.
Trent Thompson, a heavy equipment operator, said he had never played Powerball before picking up a ticket today at the Plaid Pantry on West Fourth Plain Boulevard.
It’s a game, he said, and the odds are so long even thinking about what to do with that kind of money seems foolish.
“I don’t even want to think about it,” he said. “I’m more of a realist. That’s why I don’t play.”
Still, he said.
“Yeah, you get to talking about it —” he paused and shook his head. “Might as well.”
At $1.5 billion as of tonight, Wednesday night’s Powerball jackpot is the largest in the history of the multistate lottery program.
Thompson isn’t alone in trying to get his slice. Players have besieged convenience stores in the past few days in a bid to score the winning combination.
Ronnie Moore, an employee at the Minit Mart down the road on Fourth Plain, said this afternoon a customer stopped by the store to buy $250 worth of tickets. Amber Mobley, another employee, said one customer must have dropped $600.
“On a regular day, we probably sell maybe 50 tickets,” Moore said. “Lately, we’ve been selling more than 100 a day. You can really see the incline every day as it gets closer to the countdown.”
On Wednesday, Mobley said, “we’re going to be nonstop Powerball.”
Powerball is played in 44 states, Washington, D.C., the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, and the odds against winning big are astronomical: One chance in 292,201,338.
The probability of getting a royal flush in poker is 1 in 649,740.
The probability someone is struck by lightning in a given year is about 1 in 960,000, according to the National Weather Service.
Imagine a typical 21½-inch widescreen computer monitor, such as the one used to write this article, or the kind sitting at the work desks of millions of lottery players.
The chance of winning is roughly equivalent to one pixel on 165 of those monitors.
But still. It’s a lot of money. A whole lot. So much so the full jackpot amount isn’t fitting on the digital readout on many lottery signs.
Winners can take the $1.5 billion in payments over 29 years, or as an estimated $930 million lump sum, before taxes. Taken as a lump sum, the prize is about the size of the city of Vancouver’s 2015-2016 biennial budget, several million dollars more than the county’s budget, and about 17 times the budget for the city of Battle Ground.
One could, hypothetically, buy tickets representing all 290 million-some combinations for about $584 million. Even after winning a few smaller prizes it’d be a losing bet, considering taxes and the possibility of a shared prize.
The Associated Press reported lottery officials said 75 percent of the possible number combinations were purchased ahead of Saturday’s drawing. The officials expected that percentage to rise — and increase the likelihood of someone winning Wednesday night.
In Washington, three winners of lesser prizes came forward last week, one from Southwest Washington.
The state lottery commission said a grandmother won $50,000 after buying a ticket at the Safeway at Northeast 76th Street and 117th Avenue.
The commission said she took a computer-generated number, and plans to stow away any money not spent on her grandkids.
Tom Loran, a longshoreman, also stopped by the Minit Mart today to pick up a few tickets.
He plays occasionally and said it’s just a cheap thrill.
“Someone’s gotta win, and if you don’t buy, you don’t win,” he said. “Gotta give it a shot, even if it’s one in 292 million.”
The next drawing is at 7:59 p.m. Wednesday.
