RICHMOND, Va. β The Powerball jackpot has surged to an estimated $1.1 billion ahead of Monday's Labor Day drawing, making it potentially the fifth-largest prize in the game's history.
No ticket matched all six numbers in Saturday's drawing, though two $50,000 winning tickets were sold in Central Virginia. The massive jackpot comes with a one-time cash payout option of nearly $500,000 before taxes.
At the Quick N Easy convenience store on Broad Street, known for producing big winners, there's been a steady flow of customers hoping to strike it rich.
Kevin Snead, while joking that he prefers Pick 4 based on the odds, has clear plans for a potential billion-dollar windfall.
"Make sure my kid is straight, my mama and her caretaker are straight, my daddy and probably my little nephews in college, stuff like that," Snead said.
Another customer expressed similar generous intentions.
"I'd give it away, probably," they said. "Not all of it. But just people that I see in need that genuinely don't know I have a billion dollars, and they're struggling with something, I can be like, here it is."
Monday's drawing will mark the 40th since the jackpot was last won on May 31 in California. The largest Powerball jackpot on record was just over $2 billion, won in California on November 7, 2022.
The odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 292 million. While that may sound like a long shot, a winner in Oregon won just over $1 billion in April of last year.
When asked about his lucky numbers, one hopeful player summed up the sentiment: "I hope all of them are lucky!"
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