Powerball Fever Over $500-Million Jackpot
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TALLAHASSEE (CBSMiami) - People across South Florida lined up to shell out $2 bucks a pop for a chance at becoming a multi-millionaire.
The Powerball jackpot for Wednesday night surged to $500 million.
The Florida Lottery lists City Discount in Cooper City as one of the biggest sellers in South Florida. And it sure looked like it, with long lines forming at the register.
One player bought 100 tickets for $200.
"People go for it. Why not?" clerk Mckenzie Joseph told CBS4's Donna Rapado. "That's their mentality. You can't win if you don't play."
Antoinette Ocon is felling lucky.
"I've got the lucky, power ball winning ticket," she said, " and Fantasy 5 just in case. "
Maria Bencomo bought $60 worth.
"We did a pool at work. Thirty tickets, 30 Powerball tickets. So I guess the office will be closing if we win, cause there's nobody left," said Bencomo.
Marcel Adriani learned, realistically, the chances of winning are pretty slim.
"About 50-50,hopefully we can win it all," predicted Adriani.
"The odds are actually 1 in 292 million," said CBS4's Ted Scouten.
"Than the odds are pretty small," answered Adriani.
Some people plan to use the money to getaway.
"I got a lot of friends that want some money, so it looks like they'll be getting some," said Powerball player Kevin Clemens. "Then I'm gonna disappear and no one's gonna know where I am except my kids."
In fact, you have a better chance of being killed by an asteroid -- or being killed by a lightening strike. You even have a better chance of being struck by lightning while drowning. So how can you increase your chances?
Hector Espinosa is a psychic. He said you can increase your odds by cleaning up any negative energy around you.
"When you get thousands or millions of people praying to win the lotto, it throws the universal energy into chaos," said Espinosa. "When you take a shower, from the neck down, stay wet, scrub down, exfoliate just with salt and ask the universe to cleanse the energy, then wash it off, then do the same thing with sugar to attract sweetness and luck to your life."
In addition to the large jackpot prize, players have the opportunity to win lower-tier prizes from $4 up to $2 million by matching any of the non-jackpot-winning combinations. There have been more than one million Florida Powerball winners in this series of rollovers, winning more than $9 million in prizes.
Jackpot prizes are paid in either a lump sum or in 30 annual installments. Jackpot prizes must be claimed within 60 days after the draw to receive the cash option of an estimated $306 million.
Winners of lesser prizes have 180 days from the drawing date to claim their prize.