Facebook
Fark
Digg
Reddit
Stumble
By Conor Shine (contact) 
Monday, Nov. 26, 2012 | 1:18 p.m.
Despite long odds — one shot in 175 million — of hitting the jackpot in Wednesday’s record $425 million Powerball lottery, hundreds of people are lining up at stores just inside the Arizona border to buy tickets.
Presumably, many are from neighboring Nevada, which does not offer the lottery.
About 500 people were lined up at lunchtime Monday to buy tickets at the Arizona Last Stop, about 30 miles southeast of Boulder City on U.S. 93.
The line started forming when the store opened at 6:30 a.m., co-owner Lynda Yovanno Ducas said. To deal with the crowd, all of the store’s 14 employees have been called in to work, she said.
Still, customers could expect to spend about an hour in line for the chance to buy tickets at $2 each, Ducas said.
The line was shorter down the road at Rosie’s Den, where customers had to wait about 20 minutes to buy tickets from one of two lottery machines at the diner.
The store is extending its hours until 8 p.m. for the next few days to accommodate the surge of lottery customers, said Sheila Larson, the owner’s daughter.
“It’s crazy,” she said. “We’re just going to keep on working through it.”
The Powerball jackpot climbed to a record high after nobody picked the winning numbers in Saturday’s drawing. The lottery operates in 42 states, Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
I get people want to play the lottery and dream and all, what I don't understand is why you would line up for hours after a hour drive just because the jackpot is $425m? Like $50m or $100m just wasn't enough justification to do that.
Don't drop too much. $5 is more than enough. All I want is $10 mil.. The rest is given away.
Not knowing they don't have PB in CA. I drove to Primm for a ticket. Oops! Very nice drive just the same. Maybe I will drive to AZ tomorrow for a shot at the big money. Too bad the powers that be can't see the benefit to having a lottery in NV. Don't some schools need to be fixed here? Amazing grip the casinos have on our state government. Sad really...
Best of luck everybody!!
Hopefully there are several winners.
ran out to the Last Stop yesterday afternoon and waited on line for maybe 5 minutes, 3 of those minutes were for a very special person who just didn't "get it".
anyway -- put a $20 down and I've already gotten my moneys worth out of it. Heck, I've checked out Veyrons for when I win. lol
Stupid is as stupid does! I saw a guy on TV the other day who was whining about not having enough money to pay his current bills, yet he was laying down good money on a bad bet - the lottery. How ignorant can a guy get? That "jackpot" didn't grow to its enormous sum because there were too many winners, fools. It grew because there are too many suckers dumb enough to lay out their grocery, rent or mortgage money. Google P.T. Barnum and you'll find that he was talking about you if you spent one buck on that pipe dream!
Please let me know when the 174,999 million ticket is sold, and then I'll go buy my ticket.
Another case of Nevadans (and visiting tourists) having to take their money out of state. WE could use that money. Do the casinos actually think that people will stop gambling if they spend $5 on the lottery????
Comment removed by moderator. Name Calling
I head to AZ every 5 weeks. I play 5 tickets a draw, with 2 draws a week. The ticket allows you to enter up to 10 consecutive draws. So it's about $1,000 a year (+/-) that leaves the state. I'm not rich, but I pay my bills, and I don't gamble at casinos, mainly because I don't want to smoke 10 packs of cigarettes while I'm there. This is just something I like to do so maybe one day I can go tell my boss to go take a Flying !@#$ at the Moon! Too bad the entire State Legislature is on the Gaming lobby payroll!!