Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live Saturday

Powerball Jackpot At $128 Million

Aired August 18, 2001 - 15:09   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DONNA KELLEY, CNN ANCHOR: The odds of winning tonight's Powerball lottery are less than one in 80 million, but you know that's not stopping people across the country from trying their luck.

Tickets for the $128 million jackpot are sold in these 21 states, and the District of Columbia, that you're seeing on the map.

CNN's Kathleen Koch joins us now from a D.C. convenience store where a lot of folks are hoping to strike it rich there. Kathleen?

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Donna, these are all believers in the dream. The dream of winning that $128 million jackpot. As so many people tell us, all it takes is one ticket.

Those tickets have been selling fast and furious throughout Washington, D.C., today. Not just to people who live in the District of Columbia, but there are plenty of residents of the neighboring states of Maryland and Virginia that don't participate in the Powerball lottery. They are driving in, some of them sometimes more than an hour, just to pick up these tickets.

Now, the odds are long, though, of winning, as you pointed out. One in 80 million to win the big jackpot. If you match 5 numbers, you win $100 thousand. The odds of winning that, one in 1.9 million. And truth be told, though I'm sure they don't want to hear it, most of those standing here in line, really have the greatest odds of winning just $3, pretty decent odds of one in 75.

Now, here to talk with us about the lottery and how likely you really are to win it is Tony Cooper, who's head of the D.C. Lottery and also president of The Powerball Group.

Tony, do you think people really realize how long the odds are?

TONY COOPER, D.C. LOTTERY: I think most people do. When we first started this we would see people come in pay maybe 20, 30, 40, 50 dollars. That's why we used to have such tremendous, big jackpots. But now people are becoming more sophisticated about this game.

And as you saw from the people standing in line, the average bet is about $5, $10. A lot of people are just playing $1 or $2. Because they really -- it only takes one ticket to win, but the odds are so long that people are now saying, hey, this is fun. Let's just play our fun money. KOCH: I understand that you really don't want people to bring their mortgage in and spend that. Is that true? There's a lot of concern that this is a form of gambling and can be harmful.

COOPER: Well we see it as a form of fun. This is a form of entertainment. We tell everybody, if you have money, you want to use fun money - play the lottery. It's four three things: To have fun, to have more fun and to have big fun when it's up to $128 million. You only need a dollar, or $2, or $3 to have that fun.

As a matter of fact, you see this line here now. We made an estimation that if you a took a line and you stretched that line from D.C. to California, ten times back and forth, only one person standing in that line has a chance to win the Powerball, but at least 40 people standing in that line will win at least $100 thousand. And for every block that line goes, at least two people would win some form of prize from anywhere from $3 all they way up to $5,000, including $100 thousand.

KOCH: Now, a lot of people in the line may say they at least feel good about the fact that if they don't win, this money goes to a good cause. It goes to the city.

COOPER: Well...

KOCH: Part of it.

COOPER: ... yes, part of it goes to the city. It also goes to the retailers who sell the tickets. In some states it goes to education, in some states it goes to elderly care programs, park and recreations, to the environment, and various other worthy causes.

So no matter whether it's $2 or $3 that you bet, if you win - all well and good. But the money that has been invested into Powerball goes back to worthy causes.

KOCH: Tony, when the jackpot gets this high, $128 million, or the cash payout of what, $76 million, how many more tickets do you sell on a daily basis?

COOPER: Well, as a powerball grows, we -- for an example, today we're selling about a five-fold increase in tickets. We'll probably sell about a million tickets for this particular Powerball run. Our normal sales for a regular Powerball run would be about one-fifth of that amount.

KOCH: Tony, thank you very much. And the drawing is tonight, we're looking at -- what is it, 10:59 p.m.?

COOPER: 10:59 Eastern standard time.

KOCH: All right. And I know that a lot of people here in the line are going to be tuning in.

And now, of course, Donna, if we don't have a winner in tonight's Powerball drawing, that means a lot of these people waiting in line will be back in line again for the next big Powerball drawing which will be Wednesday night. Back to you.

KELLEY: Yes, that's right.

Kathleen, have you had a chance to talk to a few folks and see if they are spending five bucks at a crack, or 10 bucks, or how much they are spending?

KOCH: Tony Cooper was right, we are seeing most people spending between one and $5. I have really been astonished by the number of people who have come and stood in line just to spend a dollar, because they insist all you need is that one lucky ticket.

We saw a couple of people earlier this morning spending over $100, but they were buying tickets for large groups, for their office or for their family. And the one woman who was buying for her office confessed she'd done this many times before and they've never won. It didn't improve their odds much.

KELLEY: OK. Kathleen Koch, thanks very much. We'll be waiting to see.

KOCH: You're welcome.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com