Powerball fever hits the area

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By Jamie Norton

Powerball fever reached new heights over the past week, as the jackpot trickled to over $1 billion. And that wasn’t lost on the people of Granville, as the local Stewart’s Shop saw a big bump in sales of the popular lottery contest.

Jeremy Ward, manager of the Stewart’s on Quaker Street in Granville, said normally the shop sells about $1,000 per week in online lotto sales. Last week it sold over $8,000.

“We sold over 2,000 tickets in two and a half days,” Ward said.

Through Monday, the Powerball jackpot had already reached $1.4 billion – the largest in history – and was sure to eclipse $1.5 billion before Wednesday’s drawing as people everywhere, including Granville, kept pouring money into the pot in hopes of being financially set for life.

The only problem is, the more people who play, the higher the odds against winning become.

“They see the dollar value, and it intrigues them more,” Ward said. “When it’s $2-300 million, or even $100 million, people just see those often, so they assume that their chances are slim. But, then when the see $900 million, they say, ‘Well, let’s try it.’ But reality is, the chances (of winning) are less.”

The odds to win are one in 292.2 million, and they decrease with every ticket bought. But the dreams of living the lifestyles of the rich and famous are too great for many to not at least give it a shot.

“It’s such a ridiculous amount of money, where would you even start?” quipped Granville resident Diane Lee. Still, she said, if she won, she’d pay off all her bills before anything.
John Cosey, meanwhile, has a big family, so he’d give his winnings away to his grandchildren and great-grandchildren. But, he said, he thinks the economy could get a boost if the jackpot were dispersed more evenly.

“Instead of giving me $500 million, give 500 people a million,” he said. “That would fix the economy.”

Wally Hawkins, though, joked that he wouldn’t be so philanthropic. He said if he won, he’d squirrel it away.

“I’d hide it from everybody,” Hawkins said. “Everybody would be crawling out of the woodwork.”

The extra sales have been nice in that they’ve been keeping Stewart’s employees busy, Ward said, but they haven’t been making the company much additional money, as they only get about 7 cents per dollar spent on the Powerball.

“Our hourly numbers, they’re up, but it’s not sales in food or dairy or something like that, that’s going to increase our (revenue),” he said. “We’re so busy with Powerball – and it’s time consuming – but, yet, we don’t make that much per dollar on each ticket. So I can’t justify adding payroll to bring extra people in because our sales really aren’t up.”

In Whitehall, the excitement is just as big. However, there are four different places to get a lottery ticket, so it’s a little more dispersed.

Tickets in Whitehall can be purchased at Putorti’s Market, Stewart’s Shops, Sunoco and Cumberland Farms.

Cheryl Putorti, co-owner of Putorti’s said, “People are excited, it’s a crazy amount of money.”

So, if you have to wait in line a little bit longer to buy your ticket, Ward and his employees apologize. But don’t worry – if you win, you’ll have all the time money can buy.

Editor’s Note: Whitehall Times reporter Dan King contributed to this story.