Powerball jackpot spikes to $500M

ATLANTA — The Powerball jackpot has gone up $75 million, to a half-billion dollars leading up to Wednesday night's drawing.

No one matched all of the numbers for Saturday night's $325 million jackpot, and Sunday morning it had rolled over to a record-breaking $425 million. Then, it reached $500 million on Tuesday afternoon. Until now, the game's largest jackpot was $365 million, which was won by eight co-workers in Nebraska six years ago.

Channel 2's Linda Stouffer went to a Shell gas station in Mableton, where jackpot dreams were selling big Tuesday. Although the chances of winning are one in 175,000,000, customers seemed optimistic.

"This the last time y'all see me until I claim the prize in a couple of days," Carolyn Davis told Stouffer.

Over the weekend, a computer glitch was blamed for frozen machines and excessive wait times, but smooth sales resumed Tuesday.

"Today is fantastic. You didn't see this smile yesterday," Shell manager Heile Tiruneh told Stouffer.


Watch the Powerball drawing on WSB-TV before Channel Action News Nightbeat at 11 p.m. on Wednesday.

WSBTV