Players cross the border for Powerball
Posted: 10/8/2004 10:29:51 AM
Mississippi may not participate in the multistate Powerball, but that doesn't stop its residents from crossing the state line for a chance to be the lucky winner.
Convenience store clerks in Slidell, La., say they're ready for the long lines that come with with high jackpots such as Saturday's, which is an estimated $215 million.
"We've increased staff already in preparation for Saturday," said Belinda Anthony, manager of the Race Trac on Gause Boulevard. "Basically, everybody that comes in this door will buy a ticket."
Whether they are paying for gas or buying something to drink, nearly everyone who enters the high-traffic store buys a lottery ticket. Some Thursday bought more than one.
Sandy Mackey of Diamondhead drove to Louisiana just to buy 10 quick-pick (computer-generated numbers) Powerball tickets.
"I already had one for Saturday," she said. "I usually get them when it (the jackpot) gets to be a certain point."
Mackey, who once won $100 from a Powerball ticket, hopes luck is on her side this weekend. The first thing she would do with the money is to pay off her mortgage and other bills.
Mississippians aren't the only out-of-towners who drive across state lines to buy tickets. Anthony said she has a regular customer who travels from Alabama to Slidell each week to buy hundreds of dollars worth of tickets.
The man stopped by early Wednesday to buy $1,800 worth of Powerball tickets for Wednesday night's drawing. No one won that jackpot, which was about $170 million.
Anthony said customers who come in her store today and Saturday likely will have to wait in line to get tickets.
At least one person who bought lottery tickets at the Race Trac was lucky. Anthony said the store once sold a Louisiana Lottery ticket to a man who claimed a $1 million prize.
Sales were slow Thursday morning at Jemworks Shell on Louisiana 1090 in Pearl River, La., but store owner Jody Morris said he expects sales to pick up today and Saturday. Like Anthony, he will have additional workers on Saturday to manage the expected crowds.
The Powerball drawing is held at 9:59 p.m. (Central Time) Saturday in Des Moines, Iowa. However, sales for that day's drawing stop at 9 p.m. (Central Time). Twenty-seven states plus the Virgin Islands and Washington, D.C., participate in Powerball.
Source: Sun Herald
