**What hypocricy**

Lottery jackpot nears $200M Lines getting longer as Powerball fever spikes
By Debbie Howlett

USA TODAY


The multistate Powerball lottery jackpot, which hasn't been won since June 16, could reach $200 million by Wednesday night's drawing, making it the third-richest in U.S. history.

The odds of winning that staggering jackpot are an equally staggering 80 million-to-1, but that isn't stopping players from lining up in the District of Columbia and 20 states where Powerball tickets are sold.

In Greenwich, Conn., on Monday, Ashok Sheth arrived to open his tobacco store at 6 a.m. and found three people waiting to buy tickets. By afternoon, 50 potential winners were lined up outside.

To win the jackpot, a player has to match five numbers plus the special Powerball number. ''You can get struck by lightning more likely,'' said Sheth, who never buys lottery tickets. ''But I guess a dollar or two for a dream is OK.''

Sherry Bowers of Canby, Ore., is eagerly plunking down a buck or two. But she's an occasional player, buying tickets only when the jackpot climbs past $90 million. ''Somebody's gotta win,'' said Bowers, a 50-something grocery store clerk. ''Might as well be me.''

The U.S. record for a lottery prize was set last year when families from Michigan and Illinois split a $363 million payout from the Big Game, another multistate lottery. In 1998, 13 machine-shop workers from Ohio shared the second largest jackpot, a Powerball prize of $296 million.

As jackpots climb, lotteries draw not just regular players but also first-timers and occasional players. The jackpot for the Powerball has been growing since the last win June 16. When no one won Saturday's $125 million jackpot, it rolled over to $175 million for Wednesday's drawing. However, lottery director Charles Strutt said sales have been so brisk that he's boosting the estimated jackpot to $200 million. ''If sales hold, we'll get there easy,'' he said.

A $200 million jackpot winner, if there is one, can choose between a lump sum payout of $112 million, or 25 annual payments of $8 million, before taxes.

Mike Orkin, author of What Are the Odds? Chance in Everyday Life, explains the difficulty of winning the big prize this way: If you drove 10 miles to buy a Powerball ticket, you would be 16 times more likely to die in an auto accident than to pick the correct six numbers.

If your salary was $50,000 a year, it would take 4,000 years to make $200 million.

Angie Kim, owner of the Tenley Mini-Market in Washington, D.C., is bracing for a rush of business.

''We expect a lot of customers on Wednesday; that's when it will get really busy,'' said Kim, who has already bought tickets for herself. ''Sometimes people like to wait until the last minute.''

Powerball tickets are sold in Arizona, Connecticut, D.C., Delaware, Indiana, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Wisconsin and West Virginia.