What would you do with a Powerball jackpot? (And what's the downside?)
With Powerball sales breaking previous records, the odds are growing that someone will win Saturday night's $800 million jackpot - but if no one matches all the numbers, the next drawing is expected to soar past $1 billion, The Associated Press reported.
For this weekend's record drawing, about 65 percent of the possible number combinations will have been bought, officials with the Multi-State Lottery Association, which runs the Powerball game, told the AP Friday. That percentage could rise if the jackpot estimate is increased - but even lottery officials say they don't know what to expect.
“You can throw out the logic. You can throw out the statistics,” said Gary Grief, executive director of the Texas Lottery. “We've never seen jackpots like this. It's a new experience for all of us.”
The Powerball jackpot has grown from its $40 million starting point on Nov. 4. If no one wins today, “it will definitely go past $1 billion,” Grief said.
This kind of huge jackpot was just what lottery officials hoped for last fall when they changed the odds of matching all the Powerball numbers, from about one in 175 million to one in 292.2 million. By making it harder to win a jackpot, the tougher odds made the ever-larger prizes inevitable.
We at the Daily Herald had no problem finding people in convenience store lines buying Powerball tickets. We asked some of them two questions: What would you do if you win, and would there be a downside to winning? Here are some answers.
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Sharon Harris of Libertyville
If I win: “Share it with family and friends”
Downside? “Can't think of one yet”
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Randy Miller, Carol Stream
If I win: “I would retire and put my daughter through college. I'd donate to the Autism Society; I have a stepson who has autism.
The downside: Everybody would came after me for my money. I heard it's hard to have a lot of money, but I'd like to try it.
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Gene Kacmarcik, Libertyville
If I win: “Split it up amongst my family. Do things we haven't done before.”
Downside? “Not really. You can always do something with that money. Give it away to charity or whatever but you can always do something with it.”
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Bonnie Richmond, Bartlett
If I win: “I'd send my grandkids through college, and buy my kids homes, and then give some to charity.”
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Anne Stone, Lincolnshire
If I win: “It sounds a little cliché, but give a lot of it to animal charities.”
Downside? “I think you have people coming out of the woodwork all of a sudden becoming your friends.”
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Kyle Watson, Des Plaines
If I win: “I would move my family to Miami, Florida, and just enjoy life.”
Downside? “There would probably be a lot of people asking for money who I haven't seen for years. It would be a lot to handle.”
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Brian Frey, Elgin
If I win: “I've got two high school boys and they'd be going to whichever college they choose to go to and the rest would just be divvying out over family.”
Downside? “There'd be a lot of phone calls that I wouldn't want to answer from any and everybody as far as lawyers and everything else. I've known people that have won smaller lottos in the past, so I know I'd have to shut off all the phones, that's for sure.”
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Bob DeStefano, Lombard
If I win: “If I won, I would take care of my family. Number one.”
Downside? “All your friends would be coming out of the woodwork. And family that you've never met or seen.”
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Lillian McConnell, Elgin
If I win: “Well, my husband was raised in Oregon and all his life he's wanted to go back to Oregon, and I'm gonna build him a house overlooking the ocean in Oregon. The rest I have to think about. ... A lot to charity, a lot to the veterans.”
Downside? “Not at all, just be calm and use it on a daily basis to the best of your ability.”
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Celeste Tobey, Lombard
If I win: “I would probably first put some aside for my children. I have two boys at home. Then, we would take a vacation and probably get a vacation home.”
Downside? “I don't think so. I think you would probably find out who your true friends are.”
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Bob Mogler, Elgin
If I win: “I would build a new kind of a retirement place that would have condos for people that were still going well. It would have assisted living; it would have a nursing home and an adult day care center. I'm getting old (he said while laughing)!”
Downside? “You'd have people coming out of the walls that you'd never heard of before. I'd have cousins that are cousins of cousins of cousins, I'm sure.”
Downside: “People coming out of the woodwork asking for money.”
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Rick Lionello, Elmwood Park
If I win: “I would retire immediately. That would pretty much be it.”
Downside? “I can't think of any. I would take care of me and my family.”