Caviar and champagne wishes were put on hold yet again early Sunday as the historic Powerball jackpot failed to produce the lucky the winner of a record-shattering $949.8 billion.
Left on the table Saturday was $949.8 million when no one claimed the numbers: 16, 19, 32, 34, 57 with a Powerball of 13.
The monumental Powerball jackpot will surge to $1.3 billion by the Multi-State Lottery Association’s 20th attempt on Wednesday.
The soaring prize was fueled by record ticket sales. The bigger prizes draw more players, who in turn make the jackpots even bigger.
With fever climbing Saturday, lottery players in the city and across the nation rushed to scoop up last-minute tickets.
“Everyone knows you can’t win, if you don’t play,” said James Smallwood, 51, after buying 31 tickets with his sister and mother at the Fordham Grocery and Convenience store in the Bronx. “In life, you have to take chances.”
Several customers — and even the bodega’s owner — were feeling lucky.
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“We believe we’re going to win,” proclaimed Annette Smith, 50, who bought 18 tickets with her friend Renaldo Rosario, 48. “Something was just telling us to play, so we played.”
Owner Pravin Patel believes lightning will strike twice. His shop, as he frequently reminds customers, sold a $166 million Mega Millions ticket in 2009.
“People know this store’s lucky — that’s why they come here,” Patel, 45, said. “We’re gonna sell the winning ticket. … We sold the biggest winner in New York history.”
This Powerball jackpot started as a $40 million prize on Nov. 4 and rolled over 20 times, growing each time a drawing yielded no winners.
On Thursday, the stakes climbed to $675 million, zooming past the record of a $656 million Mega Millions jackpot won in March 2012.
Lottery changed the odds of matching all the Powerball numbers last fall: The former one in 175 million to one odds were replaced with a seemingly impossible one in 292.2 million chance. By making it harder to win a jackpot, the tougher odds made the ever-larger prizes inevitable.
So many people were buying Powerball tickets in Iowa on Friday that lottery spokeswoman Mary Neubauer said some stores were running out of paper for tickets, leaving lottery workers scrambling to resupply the outlets.
Many players know the changes are slim — but they’re still gobbling up the $2 tickets.
Bashir Rahman, a chef from Moscow, Idaho, who was traveling through Nebraska, said he decided to buy a couple tickets at a Casey’s gas station in Lincoln, but he realizes it’s a long, long shot.
“You buy more than two, you’re just stupid,” he said.
With News Wire Services
With Nicole Hensley
