RIVERSIDE, Mo. — Today may be the day you could come home with a billion dollars as the Powerball jackpot tops $1 billion, marking the the seventh-highest jackpot in lottery history.
Many Powerball players are feeling confident and lucky.
RedX in Riverside has a reputation for lottery winners. Every year it sells the most or second-most lottery tickets in all of Missouri and sees customers across Kansas and Missouri flock to its store whenever the lottery reaches a significant threshold.
“Because of my age, I'd take it all in one lump sum and make sure I get what's coming,” David Busch said, while shopping for lottery tickets.
Busch came out to RedX a day before the drawing to purchase a lottery ticket. He said despite the slim chance at winning big, he’s still dreaming big.
“I want to make make sure my church had the biggest portion of it,” Busch said. “Then I'd make sure my family was set up for a good life thereafter and then I might even build a house on some land.”
When it came to picking their numbers, many lottery players left it up to fate, while others decided to lean on their family's lucky numbers.
"I have some numbers that I pick on occasion because I have a card that I keep numbers of my grandkids' birth dates,” Maryann Hean said.
People in both Kansas and Missouri have until 8:59 p.m. Wednesday to purchase their tickets before the lucky numbers are drawn.
According to the Missouri Lottery, 3-4% of the state's funding for public education comes from lottery tickets. In Kansas, funds will go to the the state Gaming Revenues Fund, which will then distribute the money to detention facilities, maintenance projects and other initiatives.
