The Powerball lottery drawing at 10:59 p.m. tonight may make one -- or a couple -- Americans very wealthy, as the jackpot has reached $220 million.
It’s one of the 10-largest Powerball pots ever, though it’s still $39.9 million less than Columbia’s Solomon Jackson Jr. won in August 2009.
Regardless, convenience stores and other lottery retailers are seeing some extra traffic as people take a stab at the 1-in-195 million odds.
“It does pick up, you know,” Midlands convenience store worker Naomi Hutson said about ticket sales. “When [the jackpot] gets up, everybody starts wanting one.”
She said that while activity is par for the course most of the day, as many people get off work they’ll stop by and buy a $1 Powerball ticket.
“Right now it’s slow, but later on this afternoon it’ll pick up," she said.
People can purchase a Powerball entry until 9:59 p.m., allowing an hour between the last sales and the public reveal of the winning numbers on local CBS televisions affiliate WLTX.
Once they get home with the metaphorical golden ticket, there isn’t anything else to do but wait on the numbers. Not that it’s stopped people from performing their own hoodoo to help them win.
Jackson’s 2009 win marked the last time a South Carolinian took home the jackpot.
But, S.C. Education Lottery executive director Paula Harper Bethea is hoping the next Powerball winner is located here.
“I know I will be watching Wednesday night’s drawing with my fingers crossed hoping a South Carolinian will be holding that winning ticket,” Bethea said in a statement.
“Obviously the winner benefits, but so does the state when a jackpot-winning ticket is sold here.”
If someone does have the winning ticket this evening, they will receive the cash value of the prize, estimated $118.8 million.
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