Powerball's $280 Million Jackpot Attracts Thousands of Ticket Buyers
BRIAN NELSON, CNN ANCHOR: We begin with a long shot -- it is a really long shot at winning the Powerball jackpot, and it's not the odds that have people waiting in long lines, it is the big payoff, a whopping $280 million. As the clock ticks toward tonight's drawing, the jackpot is getting bigger by the hour, and CNN's Kathleen Koch is live right now at a ticket seller in Washington, and gives us the good news from there -- Kathleen.</s>KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brian, you could say that this is the ticket seller in Washington. You could call it lottery central. Lottery official say this is the biggest Powerball retailer in Washington, D.C. Now, if you look behind me, you will see four lines, there are actually four Powerball machines that have been cranking out tickets since early this morning. People lined up outside this Shell station in Southeast Washington at 5:30 this morning. By the time the doors opened at 8:00, there were about 100 people standing in line, so this place has been very busy. Now, in the city itself, lottery officials estimate for Wednesday -- Powerball drawing Wednesday night -- they sold 20 times the normal number of tickets, and they believe that they are actually surpass that number today. Now, we are going to walk down here and talk about numbers, because this is literally a numbers game. We want to find out how people are picking those lucky numbers. Excuse me, sir. Hi. You are in line for the lottery, could you tell us how do you choose your lucky numbers?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just at random.</s>KOCH: Just at random? You have the computer choose them?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah, computer does it.</s>KOCH: Ma'am, hi. You just bought a ticket. Now can you tell us how did you pick your numbers?</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My birthdays and my kids' days of birth.</s>KOCH: And have those numbers been lucky in the past?</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Some of them have, yes.</s>KOCH: Let's see who else is buying tickets. Sir, how are you picking your numbers?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Dates of birth, ages, house address.</s>KOCH: And have you won with those numbers?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not yet. Not yet.</s>KOCH: Now Brian, what we are finding out when we talk to lottery officials -- you can see people are just filing in, everybody wants to get their number. Lottery officials say that 70 percent of those who do win the Powerball jackpot actually let the computer pick their numbers. But that does not actually give you an advantage, because 70 percent of the people who play Powerball let the computer pick their numbers, so it is actually proportionate. Now, again, the drawing is going to be tonight, just before 11:00 p.m., so there are going to be a lot of people tuned in all around the country looking at their lucky numbers. Back to you.</s>NELSON: Kathleen, you have been there for while, I want to ask you a question: When you talk to people about the odds, I think it's 80 million to one, that's the odds of winning the Powerball lottery tonight. What do people say? How do they react to that? How do they justify lining up so long and paying so much for the tickets?</s>KOCH: Well, Brian, they are lining up for quite a while, but they don't seem to care. They believe all they need is that one lucky ticket, and actually we aren't seeing people spending that much money. Most are spending between $1 and $5, and as a matter of fact, the last couple that won the Powerball jackpot, won nearly $20 million earlier this spring, they only bought $3 in tickets, so people seem convinced that's all they need.</s>NELSON: That's great. One crack is enough. OK, Kathleen Koch in Washington, thank you. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com