MADISON, Wis. — While kids went door to door for candy on Halloween, adults went gas station to gas station in hopes of scoring another treat – or rather, a billion of them – winning the Powerball lottery.
“To get lottery tickets, what else,” said Margaret Virtue, buying the first two tickets at a Speedway in Fitchburg, on her quest to get eight total.
“To spread it around a little bit, I go to four different stations and just I got to have a better chance, maybe? I don’t know,” Virtue said.
Monday’s winning numbers were 3, 19, 36, 39 and 59. The Powerball was 13 Power Play was 3.
Unfortunately, Margaret probably won’t have a better chance, because there probably aren’t enough gas stations in Madison for her to get enough of an advantage, according to Shannon Ward with the Wisconsin Lottery.
To win the whole $1 billion jackpot, “the odds are somewhere in the neighborhood of 1 in 292,201,338,” Ward, a marketing communications supervisor, said.
Some ticket-buyers had a little more faith.
“I didn’t know that before I bought them,” Melissa, at the same Speedway, said of the odds.
The Powerball is this big because no one’s matched all the numbers since August 3.
But being the second-largest in Powerball history, and the fifth-largest in the lottery’s 30-year history, people still took that gamble.
“The larger the jackpots grow, the more sales are made for sure,” Ward said.
If or when someone’s ticket is the winner, Wisconsin Lottery officials say before anything, sign the back, “because that’s their first and best line of defense against fraud and it is the only form of proof that they have that they are the owner of that ticket,” Ward said.
Then she said to bring it into the office in the Department of Revenue building on Rimrock Road to redeem. Any prize over $200,000 needs to be redeemed there.
“For large amounts like that, it’s best to call ahead,” Ward said.
There are two options for receiving winnings: a cash option where the winner gets half up front and an annuity option getting equal payments of the entire jackpot over 30 years.
“Most people chose the cash option. In fact, we’ve had very few choose the annuity option,” Ward said. “And taxes are, they run about 30%.”
For some, a billion dollars would go a long way to help some hopeful winners help others. Melissa bought six tickets, hoping one makes her dream a reality.
“I would open up a foster center so kids could all stay together if they need to be taken away from their family,” she said, “so kids could all stay together if they need to be taken away from their home, that would be my first thing. Then I’d buy a couple of cars, and take a couple of trips and so forth.”
Giving to charity also makes Margaret feel even richer.
“(I would) give it away to animal rescues, give it away to people that need it, just give it away. Money comes with headaches,” she said. Though, she said, maybe she would pay off her house.
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