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Posted on 7/9/2003, 7:57:23 PM by El Conservador
EAST MONTPELIER, Vt. - Denise and James Webster were going fishing when they took a detour to test their luck first elsewhere: buying their first Powerball lottery ticket in Vermont.
The couple, along with hundreds of thousands of people in 25 states and territories where the game is played, have been lured by a jackpot that stood at $250 million Tuesday and could climb higher by Wednesday evening's drawing.
"Everybody's got a chance to win," James Webster said. "Now we're gonna try our luck at fishing."
To many Vermonters, the high stakes game is entirely new and the jackpot — $250 million — mind-boggling. Some Vermonters are buying lottery tickets for the first time and they're picking up five or 10 at once.
"I've got a lot of people buying who've never have been buying before," said Mike Finnell, owner of Mike & Terry's Exit 4 Sunoco in Putney.
State lawmakers approved including Vermont in the Powerball lottery last winter. Powerball profits will go to the Vermont Education Fund — and are expected to generate an additional $3.2 million in the first year.
Lottery officials say the game's novelty and the size of the jackpot lured more players than expected the first week. The jackpot has already rolled over 17 times since May 10, making Wednesday's jackpot the game's fourth largest.
"Number one: The game is just starting so it's a new game for players. Number two: The jackpot started out at $165 million, so obviously there's a lot of interest," said Lottery Director Alan Yandow.
Rick Wisler, New Hampshire's lottery director, said many people buy more than one ticket, believing they are dramatically increasing their odds of winning. But, he said, any improvement is minuscule.
At Middlebury College in Vermont, Mathematics Professor Bill Peterson, who teaches probability, put it this way:
Buy one ticket and there are 119,999,999 other choices. Buy two, there are 119,999,998 other choices. Buy 100, you still have 119,999,900 other possible combinations of numbers.
His non-mathematical advice: "Don't quit your job."
The largest Powerball jackpot was captured last year by a 55-year-old West Virginia contractor who won $314.9 million on Christmas Day. The richest lottery prize in U.S. history was $363 million in the Big Game jackpot, won by two players in Illinois and Michigan in 2000.
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On the Net:
Powerball: http://www.powerball.com
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FreeRepublic , LLC PO BOX 9771 FRESNO, CA 93794
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WHO CARES
Interesting. Guess he didn't count the zeros.
Here's another interesting fact:
In 2002 a $51.5 million jackpot drawn September 14 was never claimed and forfeited by someone in Indiana. Right now there is one unclaimed for $21 million in Louisiania that will be forfeit soon.
I guarantee if I have a winning ticket it WILL be claimed!
That'll buy a couple cases of beer, eh?
He was this strange little guy who'd collect scrap metal, lived in a tiny one bedroom house & collected rusted hulks of old cars. His only indulgence was to restore those old cars and buy a few more. He never moved out of that tiny house--although he did put siding on it.
I remember running into him at one of the local grocery stores in the old neighborhood after he had won. It was lottery drawing night & he was too late to buy a ticket. He was fighting with the manager, saying by HIS watch it wasn't too late to get a ticket. After he walked out of the store, the manager and I had a good laugh about it.
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