N.C. lottery players looking for luck after $88M win

Jun 30, 2009, 12:36 pm (8 comments)

North Carolina Lottery

KINGS MOUNTAIN, N.C. — Lottery tickets have been selling like wildfire since Kings Mountain resident Jeff Wilson won $88.1 million playing Powerball, said Angi White, assistant manager of the Petro Express in Kings Mountain where the winning ticket was sold.

White said lottery sales have probably doubled since Wilson hit the jackpot last week.

"This place is crazy," White said. "I think everybody thinks they're going to hit here again. They always say, 'Give me the lucky one.' You never know."

Harold Clemmer, who owns two gas stations in Gaston County, said lottery ticket sales spiked at his stores last week also. He said the spike probably is related to the local winnings.

"If we hadn't seen these winnings, we wouldn't maintain the same sales," Clemmer said.

Despite thousands of layoffs in our area and an ongoing recession, revenue from the sale of lottery tickets for the fiscal year ending today is up in Gaston, Cleveland and Lincoln counties and across the state compared to the previous year.

As of Saturday, with three days left in fiscal year 2008-2009, overall lottery sales tallied about $28 million in Gaston County and almost $1.3 billion statewide, which is a 20 percent increase over the previous fiscal year, according to statistics provided by the N.C. Education Lottery. Lottery sales were up 10 percent in Cleveland County and 17 percent in Lincoln County for this fiscal year that ends today.

At the same time, the overall payout has also increased, up 23 percent in Gaston County, 13 percent in Cleveland County, 24 percent in Lincoln County and 38 percent statewide.

But N.C. lottery spokeswoman Alice Garland said there isn't evidence that more people are playing the lottery to escape desperate financial circumstances resulting from the recession.

Powerball tickets, which have 195,249,054 to one odds of hitting a multi-million dollar jackpot, are down compared to last year. Powerball sales are driven by the size of the prize, Garland said. State officials hope that having a winner from North Carolina might boost Powerball sales. But the recession probably isn't a factor in Powerball, she said.

"Clearly the down economy doesn't have people buying more Powerball tickets," she said.

More people are playing instant scratch off tickets, which have much smaller prizes but much better odds of winning. Last year, the scratch off tickets paid out at about 50 percent, but then the state improved the payout to roughly 60 percent, and sales increased, Garland said.

Mark King, who also owns gas stations in Gaston County, said he suspects that more people play the lottery in tough economic times. King said his business is down, but he still finds himself running up to Kingsway for a few Powerball tickets whenever the jackpot climbs up above $50 million.

"It's a chance for people to win enough money to get out of their problems," he said. "People are eternal optimists. Deep down, they think they're the special one."

"I know what the odds are, but somebody is going to win," King said.

Gaston County Lottery Sales

Fiscal year 2008-2009 (through June 27)

  • Sales: $11,772,643
  • Payouts: $5,922,784

Fiscal year 2007-2008

  • Sales: $10,664,651
  • Payouts $5,242,479

Odds that ...

  • You believe the best way to get rich is to win the lottery: 1 in 5
  • You will bowl a 300 game: 1 in 11,500
  • You will die in a fireworks accident: 1 in 1 million
  • You will be an astronaut: 1 in 13.2 million
  • You will climb Mount Everest: 1 in 50 million
  • You will be killed by a falling coconut: 1 in 250 million
  • You will successfully navigate an asteroid field (according to C-3PO in "The Empire Strikes Back"): approximately 3,720 to 1
  • You will win Powerball: 1 in 195,249,054

Gaston Gazette

Comments

MaddMike51

I wonder what the odds are that a Powerball jackpot winner will be killed by a falling coconut?

Todd's avatarTodd

Quote: Originally posted by MaddMike51 on Jun 30, 2009

I wonder what the odds are that a Powerball jackpot winner will be killed by a falling coconut?

Probably better than the average person, since Powerball winners would probably be more likely to visit a place with falling coconuts. Wink

maringoman's avatarmaringoman

It's funny because the days I have that feeling that I will win something

I never win but the days I go to the store to buy something unrelated

and as an afterthought buy some tickets I end up winning. It's like I

catch the lotto demon sleeping or something.

TheGameGrl's avatarTheGameGrl

Methinks that Todd has chosen Florida to hit the powerball shortly....

 

I used to think lightening cant hit twice til my town had two powerball winners ...I think one of them was 12/31/03 and then last year a couple from my town. I still buy tickets at various locations without a thought if the previous winners bought it there. Figure my odds dont change , they are what they are....

I have such consistency in powerball that I lose each week :)

JackpotWanna's avatarJackpotWanna

You got to play to win!  I would buy from that lucky store if I lived close by.  Good Luck.

dingo's avatardingo

I better go out there to find some luck this Friday. Hooray, July 4th is coming. I wonder how many people will use July 4th (the Independent Day) on their lottery tickets this week?

ronki

Has anybody notice how many times Ohio has had 5 number winners in the meg-ball drawings at lease one or two and three one week  What is up with that and Georgia don't seem to have any What? makes you think

cwygirltx's avatarcwygirltx

Hi Ronki

Wish I lived in Franklin, N.C.  You have a greater chance to when there than I do in Texas!!

Joey

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