Louisiana Residents Line Up for Chance at Half A Billion Dollars
As a rule, folks in Louisiana don't like to wait in line. But, if the reason is good enough, say a football game, some good gumbo, or a chance at half a billion dollars most of us will fight our impatient urges and wait in line with our fellow human beings.
And yes, there is a chance that a Louisiana resident could become a "half-billionaire" before the day ends today. Yes, they'll have to be lucky and based on everything we've seen since Monday night they'll also have to spend at least a few minutes standing in line.
If you haven't figured out what the money and the waiting are all connected to it's tonight's Powerball Lottery drawing. Officials with the Powerball game have estimated that tonight's jackpot will be at least $508 million dollars. Our speculation is that the actual jackpot will climb higher than that as people rush in for a last-minute chance to get really rich.
Should there be a winner in tonight's Powerball game it won't be the largest Powerball jackpot in history. That mark was set back in 2016 when three tickets split a jackpot of more than $1.586 billion, yes billion dollars. Tonight's top prize, while life-changing indeed doesn't even crack the Top Ten when it comes to Powerball jackpots.
Based on our unscientific observations of how lottery games work I would not be surprised if tonight's drawing didn't produce a jackpot winner. We successfully predicted wins in Mega Millions and Easy 5 using our methods and the math says Powerball should get a winner tonight.
While the estimated annuity top prize is $508 million if you opt for the cash with your winning ticket your winnings would be $256,300,000 (estimated). Of course, Uncle Sam will want his share of that so you'd likely walk away with a little less than $100 million dollars unless you did some legal manuvering and formed a corporation. If that's your plan, don't announce you've won the money until you've gotten all that handled.
Lottery retailers across Louisiana have been reporting higher-than-average sales since Monday night and that will likely continue up until 8:59 this evening. That's when Powerball ticket sales must cease. By rule, they cut off sales at least one hour before the drawing which you've probably deduced is at 9:59 Louisiana time.
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