Powerball pot expands to $216 million

Thursday, Dec. 19, 2002 | 11:10 a.m.

SUN STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

At Rosie's Den, a small roadside cafe and bar in Arizona about 30 miles southeast of Hoover Dam, the "feeding frenzy" for Powerball tickets was expected to start churning again this afternoon.

A miss on Wednesday night's drawing pushed the jackpot to an estimated $216 million, the third largest Powerball jackpot ever and fifth largest in the country, and large crowds are expected through the Saturday drawing.

Norm "Hitch" Larsen, son of Rose, who has been helping sell close to 10,000 tickets a day for the past week while armed with a 9 mm handgun and an extra 15-round clip on his belt, said when jackpots climb past $200 million, the psychology of customers changes.

"It's like if you're chumming for sharks, and all of a sudden the sharks hit and start a feeding frenzy," Larsen said.

Because his family's store is along U.S. 93 and just over the Arizona state line, a lot of his "sharks" come from Southern Nevada. For most Southern Nevadans, Arizona is the closest state in which Powerball tickets can be purchased.

But not everyone was at Rosie's to buy a stack of tickets. Las Vegan Andrew Brown, 60, a retired Nevada Test Site worker, said as high as the jackpot gets, it still "doesn't take but one ticket to win," and the odds of winning the grand prize are 120 to one.

Brown, a Rosie's regular who was eating a breakfast sandwich at the eight-seat counter this morning, had driven down for the ride, as he has since 1972.

"What would I do with $200-and-some million dollars? Lord Jesus. I'd sure take some and give it to Rosie," Brown said. "And I have some daughters and grandkids I'd help, too. Yes, Lord. And my wife wouldn't have to work no more." The current jackpot run started with the Oct. 30 drawing. Wednesday night was the 15th consecutive draw that went without a big winner.

More than 1.5 million people in 23 states won a total of $11.6 million in smaller prizes Wednesday.

If the jackpot rolls over again on Saturday, Larsen said it would likely top the record $295 million jackpot won in August 2001. The potentially record-breaking drawing would be held Christmas Day.

"Wouldn't that be wonderful, if some lucky group won that?" Larsen said. "What a Christmas that would be."

The numbers drawn Wednesday were: 2, 14, 33, 50, 52 and the Powerball was 22. The Power Play multiplier was 5.

Sixteen players correctly matched the five white numbers and won $100,000. The winning tickets were purchased in Arizona, Colorado, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and West Virginia. The winning South Carolina player purchased the Power Play option. By spending the extra dollar they multiplied their prize by 5 for a total win of $500,000.

Seventy-eight players matched 4 white numbers plus the Powerball and won $5,000. Five of those players purchased the Power Play option, giving them a total win of $25,000.