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CNN Live Saturday

Powerball Jackpot Hits $128 Million

Aired August 18, 2001 - 12:14   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: Millions of people are trying to strike it rich this weekend. They're buying Powerball tickets with a jackpot worth at least $128 million bucks.

CNN's Kathleen Koch joins us live from Washington with a live report from a convenience store there with more. Is it a frenzy, Kathleen?

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, not exactly a frenzy right now. It's around lunchtime and things have started to calm down a little bit, but this is the place to be if you believe more in luck than in the odds because, realistically, your odds of winning this $128 million Powerball jackpot are 80 million to one.

Donna, that is greater than your chances -- I mean you're more likely, I should say, to be hit by lightening or to die in a plane crash than to win this jackpot. But still, there are plenty of people who are here and believe their lucky ticket will be the one. We saw some people earlier today who are buying over 100 tickets. One gentlemen for his family, another woman buying that many for her office. And at that point, then the lines here got quite long. They were stretching down the aisle.

Now if you win the lottery, you also don't have to declare your name if you have bought your ticket in the state of Delaware. Every other state, and there are 20 of them and the District of Columbia though, you do have at least release your name and the city in which you live.

Now one of the many people here who's hoping to buy tickets is a lady. Let's chat with her a little bit. Tell us your name and where you came from?

RIVA PRICE: I just came from down the street. My name is Riva Price.

KOCH: And Riva, how many tickets are going to buy?

PRICE: I'm just going to get five. And I'll let them pick it themselves and see if I have any luck.

KOCH: OK. No, we didn't want you to lose your place in line.

PRICE: That's OK. It's only person. KOCH: And Riva, so you are not going pick your own numbers then?

PRICE: No. It's all luck so, let's let the machine do it.

KOCH: What would you do if you won, Riva?

PRICE: Pay off all debt and see where life takes me.

KOCH: Thanks a lot, Riva. Obviously, Donna, there are some people who do not believe in lotteries, who believe that they are tantamount to gambling and that they can be addictive. There was even a state lawmaker in the state of Massachusetts, who got a law passed that said that on the back of every lottery ticket in that particular state, there had to be a number for compulsive gambling hotlines.

You know, people who run the lotteries, the officials say that they do want your last dime. They do not want your mortgage money, that basically what they encourage people to spend is their discretionary entertainment dollars. And they point out the money goes to lot of good causes in some of the states that have the lotteries.

For instance in Connecticut, it goes to the Department of Education. In Arizona, it's mass transportation. To economic development in Kansas. To natural resources in Minnesota. To senior citizens and state parks West Virginia. Here in Washington, D.C., they say that last year, the Powerball raised about $70 million to help run the city.

So Donna, they say that they don't believe it contributes to compulsive gambling in any way. And that in fact, if there winner tonight, that it will certainly make someone very happy. Back to you.

KELLEY: Kathleen Koch. Maybe you better go buy a ticket. Not great odds, but somebody's got to win.

KOCH: You're right.

KELLEY: Thanks.

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