The Buzz (Publick Occurrences)

NEED-TO-KNOW NEWS

Hoping against hope

Some people played hooky from work to get an 80.1 million-to-1 chance at a slice of the Powerball jackpot that swelled last week to $250 million. Greedy pursuit of a winning ticket in the multistate lottery sparked large traffic jams and even caused some Powerball computers to crash. In Connecticut, state troopers were stationed to keep order in lines of 500 people waiting up to 10 hours. At one Greenwich exit near the state line, more than 150 people left their cars on the highway shoulder and grass to walk to a rest area lottery outlet. The state lottery commission reported that computers were handling more than 15,000 wagers a minute. Twenty states and the District of Columbia sell Powerball tickets, but because of its proximity to New York, New Jersey, and Massachusetts, Connecticut Powerball outlets led the nation in sales for the first two days of the week: more than $14 million. "I wonder if government feels really proud of itself watching people lining up and losing money," commented Methodist minister Tom Grey, executive director of the National Coalition against Gambling Expansion.

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August 08, 1998, Vol. 13, No. 30

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