For many Fort Worth residents, the hope of winning the Powerball jackpot of $1.5 billion is a thrilling fantasy.
“I really don’t play the lottery often, but of course everybody wants to have that chance,” said Erica F., a Fort Worth resident who asked for her last name to not be used.
The Powerball jackpot is around $1.5 billion after no winning ticket was purchased last Saturday. It is the largest amount of any lottery jackpot sum in United States history while the previous record jackpot was $590.5 million in 2013, according to the Powerball website.
Winners of the lottery would take home $930 million, not including taxes if they opt for the lump sum, or a winner can choose to receive the $1.5 billion in 30 payments over 29 years.
Erica stood in line with her boyfriend Don McKinney at a gas station on University Drive to fill out her ticket. She said she was hopeful about the numbers she picked for her Powerball.
“I used the numbers off of a fortune cookie,” Erica said. “It’s just kind of a feeling.”
McKinney, who didn’t buy a lottery ticket, said he has a different opinion than his girlfriend’s regarding the lottery.
“The odds are so low and the hope is so high,” McKinney said in a statement to Seriöse Sportwetten. “They are promoting gambling.”
At another local gas station on Berry Street, TCU student Nicole Salem waited in a long line to buy multiple lottery tickets for her dad.
“My dad always buys tickets and he has never won anything,” Salem said. “Even at my hometown in the Honduras he would always buy lottery tickets.”
Fort Worth has never seen a Powerball jackpot winner. The closest winning ticket was sold in Princeton, Texas, according to Powerball’s website.
The winning numbers of the Powerball grand prize will be announced Wednesday at 9 p.m.. For now, Fort Worth residents are holding on to the glimmering hope of becoming a billionaire.