Residents Getting Powerball Fever

Powerball has hit a staggering and record breaking $1.5 billion and hundreds of residents are running to their favorite corner store to buy tickets for Wednesday night’s drawing.

While the odds of becoming instantly rich Wednesday night are 1 in 292,201,338, it hasn’t stopped the throngs of people buying tickets and it seems everywhere you look everyone around these parts has Powerball fever.

At Eddy’s Market on Broadway, a busy lottery agents, owner Jose Renderos expects sales of Power Ball tickets to be through the roof.

“It’s crazy here,” said Renderos. “Tuesday and Wednesay night will be our biggest night for lottery sales. I have no idea but we will sell quite a few Powerball tickets.  Last Saturday we sold a ton of tickets and I think its going to be even more by Wednesday night.”

According to Mega USA, the estimated lump sum cash payout is now at $930 million. After paying $232.5 million to the IRS and another $46.5 million In Massachusetts State Tax your net payout would be $651 million. If you opt for annuity payout, you’d make about $35 million per year after taxes for 30 years.

If anyone wins Wednesday jackpot their life will immediately change as they become instant multimillionaires.

However, all lottery experts are cautioning potential winners to do some careful planning before cashing in the big winning ticket. Experts agree any winner of the huge jackpot should first sign their ticket and then wait a week or two before cashing the winning ticket in to their local lottery. In the meantime, a winner or winners should contact an attorney and financial planner to begin planning their finances for the future.

While the odds of winning are slim, it could Massachusetts turn to produce a big winner.

According to the Massachusetts Lottery, since the game was introduced to the state in January 2010, there have been only three Powerball jackpot winners.

Maureen and Stephen Hinckley, a married couple from Sterling, claimed the largest and most recent jackpot prize with their $61,461,010 win in the December 11, 2013 Powerball drawing.

Rubidia Renderos punches in Powerball tickets at Eddy’s Market on Broadway. Owner of Eddy’s Market, Jose Renderos, expects his lottery sales to be through the roof ahead of Wednesday night’s Powerball drawing.

Rubidia Renderos punches in Powerball tickets at Eddy’s Market on Broadway. Owner of Eddy’s Market, Jose Renderos, expects his lottery sales to be through the roof ahead of Wednesday night’s Powerball drawing.

On December 12, 2012, Rosa DeLeon of Arlington and Reginald LeBlanc of Lexington, coworkers at Costco won a $50 million jackpot and on June 8, 2011 James “Jimmy” Freeman, a retired U.S. Navy civilian worker from Fall River, came forward to claim his jackpot just several hours after learning he won the $25.6 million prize.

Over the course of last 19 drawings, the Mass Lottery has sold over $53.8 million in Powerball tickets, generating approximately $22.6 million in local aid revenue for the Commonwealth and approximately $3.2 million in commissions and bonuses for lottery retailers.  During this span, two $1 million prize winning tickets have been sold in Massachusetts, including one in Saturday’s drawing sold at Clarendon Wine Co., 563 Boylston St. in Boston.  A ticket sold at Express Mart, 367 Court St. in Plymouth, won $1 million in the Wednesday, January 6 draw.

The identities of the winners are not yet known.

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