Charles Oliver
John Perez didn’t know the multi-state Powerball lottery was topping $115 million Wednesday afternoon. He just noticed a sign about a new lottery game in the convenience store where he’d stopped to buy gas and decided to try it.
“I’m excited,” Perez said about the drawing that would be held later that night. “I don’t know what I will do with the money if I win. I know what I won’t do, and that’s work.”
Prior to Sunday, 12 states, including Georgia, sold only the Mega Millions ticket as their big jackpot lottery game. Meanwhile, 33 states plus the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands sold Powerball. But an agreement signed between officials with the two games last year allows now states that take part in either game to sell tickets for both.
As of Sunday, 33 states now sell tickets for both games, and that number is expected to rise to 45 by this spring. Those who buy tickets in those states will have four chances each week to win a big jackpot. Powerball drawings are Wednesday and Saturday. Mega Millions tickets are Tuesday and Friday.
“That’s the big thing. The more states there are the quicker these jackpots are going to rise,” said Ted Young, manager of the Knob North Korner Market in Cohutta. “The big point seems to be when the jackpot reaches $100 million. That’s when you see a lot of people who don’t normally play the games buy a ticket.”
In fact, the Powerball jackpot rose $15 million from Sunday, when the tickets went on sale in Georgia. But some local store managers said sales of the tickets were a little slow.
“I don’t think a lot of people really know this is available yet,” Young said. “It’s new. They’ve got to advertise it some more, but when word gets out, I think it will pick up.”
Aelana Queen at the Beaverdale Superette said Wednesday afternoon she had only sold about 11 Powerball tickets since Sunday, compared to about 500 for the Mega Millions.
“I don’t know if people really know about it yet. The people that I’ve sold them to, the ones I can remember, have been from Tennessee,” she said.
Jim Reilly of LaFayette said he plays Mega Millions “pretty often.”
“I drove up to Chattanooga a couple of years ago when it (the Powerball jackpot) got really big and bought a ticket,” he said. “I guess now I don’t have to drive up there when it gets big.”
In 2009, stores in Whitfield County sold $2.1 million in Mega Millions tickets, while stores in Murray County sold $578,862 in Mega Millions tickets, according to data provided by the Georgia Lottery Corp.
An official with The Georgia Lottery Corp. said sales figures weren’t available for the state’s first Powerball game Wednesday afternoon.
Locally, it was tough Wednesday to get a handle on how many Powerball tickets were being sold since many local convenience store chains don’t allow managers to speak to the press without prior approval.
