Record jackpot fuels C.O. Powerball fever
It’s the fever that can’t be sweat out.
“One thing I hear the most is, ‘If I win I’m going to remember you!’ I hear that one a lot,” Quickway Market employee Devri Dooley said Sunday.
With no jackpot winners in the Powerball drawing Saturday night, the staff at the Quickway Market on Butler Market Road in Bend is preparing for Powerball madness this week.
“Wednesday is probably going to be chaotic,” Dooley said.
With a chance to get their hands on the biggest payout ever in Powerball history — an expected $425 million — players are handing over the cash and crossing their fingers.
“I had one gentleman who spent more than $100 on Powerball tickets alone,” Dooley said.
For some people, strategy is everything, and Dooley has noticed groups being a popular way to play.
“We have a family who comes in some times, and all of them each buy one ticket, and I think they probably all sit there and wait together,” Dooley said.
The odds of hitting it really big are against you — a reported 1 in 175 million. But the Quickway Market has the sign to prove someone has to win, at some point.
Bend resident Michael Davis won $200,000 with the Powerball ticket he purchased there a while back. Now he’s a regular.
“He still totally buys Powerball tickets every once in a while,” Dooley said..
Dooley says for Davis, his big win came at the best time possible.
“He’s like, ‘I had a dollar left and came in to buy a pack of cigarettes and bought one ,and that’s when I hit it” — that’s all it takes is one.” Dooley said.
But some people can’t help themselves — they’ll buy as many tickets as they can afford. Dooley, on the other hand, says in the past, she hasn’t been tempted.
“I don’t know, I just haven’t been interested,” Dooley said.”But I might go in on one today because $425 million sounds pretty good.”
Unfortunately, she’s not the only one thinking that.
Eleven people did get the first five numbers right in Saturday’s Powerball drawing and took home $1 million each. Powerball tickets are two dollars, and you have to be at least 18 years old to play. The next drawing is Wednesday.
