Community Corner

Powerball Jackpot Balloons to $173 Million

The winning numbers will be announced on Wednesday night.

The concept is simple. Pick five black numbers and one red number. Pay a dollar. And just like millions of other cock-eyed optimists, walk away dreaming about how difficult it will be to spend millions and millions of dollars every year for the rest of your life.

Tens of thousands of Powerball lottery tickets will be sold across Maryland and millions more around the U.S. this week in advance of Wednesday night’s drawing. The current jackpot for the multi-state lottery is estimated at $173 million.

Maryland State Lottery Agency has no official ticket sales estimates for this drawing. Sales data indicates that 478,613 Powerball tickets were sold throughout the state in a $20 million jackpot last month.

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And as the jackpot gets higher, people buy more tickets, says Chuck Strutt, the executive director of the Multi-State Lottery Association, an organization that facilitates lotteries in many states including Maryland. When a jackpot exceeds certain benchmarks like $100 million and $200 million, people who don’t regularly buy tickets start to pony up the money, too.

But there isn’t any evidence to suggest that more people buy tickets in a sluggish economy, Strutt said.

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“The old wisdom is that lotteries pay no attention to the economy. Some states are slightly down; other states are slightly up,” Strutt said.  “Good times or bad, people pay about the same. The price is so low, it’s just a $1. It’s virtually free at that point.”

Andy Schaufele, the assisant director of Bureau of Revenue Estimates at the Maryland Comptroller's office, said no study has been commissioned to determine if the recession has affected lottery ticket sales.

"It can go either way," Schaufele said. "If I lost my job, I can guarantee you I wouldn’t buy any lottery tickets, but I know people who would because they would need to hit it big...We have seen a slow down in sales (in Maryland) throughout the recession, but I’m not sure it can be attributed to the recession."

The state had predicted a period of slower lottery ticket sales before the recession hit, Schaufele said. "Without a study, we couldn’t tell you one way or the other."

The winning numbers will be announced on Wednesday night. For more information about the game and the official rules, visit the Powerball website.


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