Major bucks are up for grabs for Wednesday’s Powerball jackpot with nobody winning the jackpot during Monday night’s drawing.
As of noon Tuesday, Wednesday’s jackpot is an estimated $610 million, according to the Powerball website. If the winner decides to take to the cash value of that amount, they will receive an estimated $434 million. On Tuesday morning, it was at $575 million.
Wednesday’s jackpot ranks the 7th largest Powerball in history and the jackpot it is expected to increase until the Wednesday night drawing.
The Exxon Food Store on S. Frontage and Alton Gloor Boulevard in Brownsville was busy Tuesday morning, as hopeful Powerball winners lined up to buy their tickets.
Brownsville resident Rafael Beltran, 70, was one of the many purchasing lotto tickets at the store.
“I just buy one of each of the games that are playing that day,” Beltran said while standing outside the store.
He said “so far I had bought two,” for Wednesday’s Powerball drawing but added he would probably purchase more tickets between Tuesday and Wednesday night’s drawing.
Asked what he would do if he won the Powerball jackpot Beltran said. “I would pay off all my bills and help my sisters pay off their bills and take a trip,”
According to Texas Lotto, the Exxon Food Store in Brownsville and the Town and County Store in McAllen were among the top 10 sellers of Powerball tickets in Texas for 2020.
Mily Garcia, the Exxon Food Store manager, said the store had been busy over the past few days with customers buying Powerball tickets. She expected the store traffic to increase as the jackpot continues to grow.
“The sales have been growing crazy. It has been pretty busy,” she said.
Garcia said while some people may be buying $40 worth of tickets, groups get together and purchase at least $200 worth of tickets.
“The more it (the jackpot) goes up the more they buy, and now that it plays three times out of the week, we do sell a lot” of tickets, she said.
According to Powerball, you have a 24.9% chance of winning in every Power Ball drawing.
“Even if there are more tickets sold in a particular drawing, your odds of winning a prize are the same.”
The Powerball jackpot was last hit in California in the Oct. 4, 2021, drawing when a single ticket won a $699.8 million grand prize. That jackpot ranked as the 5th largest in Powerball history and the 7th largest in U.S. lottery history. Since then, there have been 39 drawings in a row without a jackpot winner, according to Powerball officials.
The winning numbers in the Monday’s Powerball drawing were white balls 2, 13, 32, 33, and 48. The Powerball number was 22.
Some of the top-winning tickets in the Monday drawing included two Match 5 tickets worth $1 million each sold in Connecticut and Texas. There was also a Match 5 + Power Play ticket worth $2 million sold in Montana.
To date, Powerball holds the world record for largest jackpot set in 2016. The record $1.586 billion jackpot was shared by winners in California, Florida and Tennessee.
