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Some Powerball player may be $195 million richer
Check your tickets ... Six lucky numbers picked in drawing
May 20, 1998
Web posted at: 11:44 p.m. EDT (0344 GMT)(CNN) -- These are the numbers that could win someone $195 million: 4, 9, 30, 34, 48 and Powerball 8.
It was uncertain immediately after the Powerball lottery drawing Wednesday night in Des Moines, Iowa, if the jackpot would be claimed.
Charles Strutt, executive director of the Multi-State Lottery Association, which runs Powerball, said officials should know Thursday whether there were any winners of the world's biggest lottery jackpot that could be won by one person.
The prize, estimated earlier at $175 million, was raised to $195 million just before the drawing. Lottery officials said sales totaled $138.5 million for Wednesday's drawing.
Chance of winning? One-in-80.1 million Although the chances of one person matching all six numbers were 1-in-80.1 million, some hopeful players even drove to neighboring states to put down their money.
The longest lines were in towns near states that don't participate in the game. New Yorkers poured in to Greenwich, Connecticut, where one man bought 4,000 tickets Wednesday morning.
"They're coming in hordes and congesting the roadways. We have lines two blocks long," said police Sgt. John Brown, who bought one ticket for each member of his family.
Powerball tickets were sold in Washington, D.C., and 20 states: Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota, West Virginia and Wisconsin.
Lottery players mobbed convenience stores, gas stations, tobacco shops, liquor stores and malls to take their chances.
Many ticket buyers spent their time in line chatting about how they would spend the winnings. Among the usual answers of houses, cars and expensive trips were some promises to support charitable causes.
"I would probably build another domestic violence shelter in the state and come up with schooling for unwanted kids," said Reinna Fraaken of Des Moines.
White House briefing delayed
Powerball fever even hit presidential spokesman Mike McCurry, who explained that he was 24 minutes late in starting Wednesday's White House briefing because he stopped to buy tickets.
"I was staying in line at our local 7-Eleven to buy Powerball tickets," McCurry told reporters as he took the podium in the briefing room.
McCurry did not reveal what he would do if he had the winning numbers. But, he said, "You could effectively conclude my service here at this podium would come to an abrupt end."
Strutt said there was an 80 percent chance that at least one ticket would have all the right numbers and a 60 percent to 70 percent chance of two or more winners.
The Powerball winner can choose a lump-sum payment of about $94 million before taxes, or $7 million per year, before taxes, for 25 years.
Related story:
- The stuff dreams are made of - May 20, 1998
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