Helm said the store will see people start buying more tickets when jackpots reach about $100 million. Once the jackpot reaches $300 million, people start to tell their friends and talk about it more, which brings even more traffic into the store, she said.
Retailers and the lottery benefit because more people buy tickets.
The last time someone won the Powerball was the Dec. 26 drawing. David Johnson, 56, of New York, claimed the $298.3 million prize.
The numbers for Wednesday’s Powerball drawing were 10, 14, 50, 53, 63 and the “power play” was 21. Only one person hit five numbers and a “power play” on Wednesday, and won $2 million in South Carolina, according to the Powerball’s website.
Four people in Florida, Kentucky, New Jersey and South Carolina matched five numbers and won $1 million.
The $625 million jackpot is the seventh-largest grand prize lottery drawing in U.S. history, with the largest at $1.59 billion in 2016. In October, the Mega Millions Jackpot hit the second-largest in grand prize lottery drawing at $1.537 billion.
The Powerball jackpot is likely to increase before Saturday’s drawing, officials said, depending on how many tickets are sold.
New rules for Powerball have meant larger jackpots. The rules approved in October 2016 adjusted the number of red and white ball that players can choose from.
Players now choose five white ball numbers out of 69, instead of 59, and one red Powerball number out of 26, instead of 35.
Players who match the red Powerball win a $4 prize, but the odds of winning are 1 in 38.32, according to the website. Odds of winning the jackpot by matching five white balls and the Powerball is 1 in 292,201,338.00.
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