Rosie’s Den sees brisk business as Powerball jackpot nears

DES MOINES, Iowa - Black Friday shoppers in many cities briefly detoured into lottery retailers, drawn off task by the prospects of winning a $325 million Powerball jackpot - the fourth-largest in the game's history.

Chicago resident Clyde Gadlin, 65, emerged from the bustle of holiday shoppers on Chicago's Michigan Avenue to stop in at a 7-Eleven to buy his daily batch of Lottery tickets, including Powerball.

For him, the game is a chance to dream - a single winner's cash payout would be nearly $213 million before taxes - and he tries not to let the long odds burst his bubble.

Lottery officials say they're unsure what effect Thanksgiving and the beginning of Christmas shopping season will have on sales, which normally pick up in the days before high-dollar drawings.

If Gadlin isn't successful this time, it's likely he will have another shot at a record-breaking pot of cash.

Brad Larsen II began his shift at 1 p.m. Friday at Rosie's Den in White Hills, Ariz., about 30 miles south of Hoover Dam.

"Right now, the line is out the door," he said during a telephone interview about three hours later. "It's been busy all day."

Larsen, the owner's grandson, estimated the gift shop had sold $13,000 to $14,000 worth of tickets that day. He said the shop has sold more lottery tickets this year than any other business in the state.

During the interview, he paused occasionally to help customers. He said he and another clerk were keeping up with the demand, holding wait times to a maximum of about five minutes.

Powerball tickets are not sold in Nevada, California or Utah.

Since Powerball tickets doubled in price to $2 in January, the number of tickets sold has decreased, but the sales revenue has made up for it, increasing by about 35 percent, said Norm Lingle, chairman of the Powerball board of directors.

And as the price went up, so did the jackpots, enticing thousands across the country to play.

"Christmas is coming, and $325 million would come in handy," said Tim Abel, 63, who was buying a Powerball ticket at New York's Port Authority Bus Terminal. The Broadway stagehand said he usually plays whenever the jackpot goes over $100 million.

Iowa Lottery spokeswoman Mary Neubauer said of the price increase: "We believed the jackpots would grow fast and grow large because of the change in the game, and it does appear that it is working."

Roxie Breece, an assistant manager at a Cenex convenience store in Ogallala, Neb., thinks the long weekend will help. She said Friday that clerks have sold far more Powerball tickets than usual over the past week.

"Tomorrow's going to be a nightmare for us," she said. "With everybody out shopping and the drawing on Saturday, we'll be really busy."

Lingle, who also is the executive director of the South Dakota Lottery, said this weekend will be "telling."

"To my knowledge we've never had a large jackpot run like this fall over a major holiday," he said.

Recent Powerball jackpot winners include an Iowa couple who won $202 million on Sept. 26. A week later, a Delaware resident picked all six numbers for a
$50 million payday.

Chad Robinson, 41, a chef at a Cleveland restaurant, had an option during his break Friday: Put down $2 on the Powerball game or go next door to Ohio's first casino. He bet on the lottery, saying that much cash would change his life "drastically."

"I figure I'll make a lot of people happy with it, not just myself, spread the love and live my life out - parents, loved ones, kids, co-workers, charities," he said. Robinson lost power at his suburban Cleveland home in Warrensville Heights during Superstorm Sandy and said it made him mindful of life's uncertainties.

Terry Fowler, 50, of Conneaut, Ohio, was visiting family in Tennessee for the holiday and stopped in a gas station in Brentwood on Friday morning to buy Powerball tickets. He's a regular player.

"I want to see more than one person hit it, so they can share the wealth," said Fowler, a sales representative with a food service company. "I don't think any one person needs $325 million. If seven, 10 people hit that, they will live like kings."

Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter Carri Geer Thevenot contributed to this report.