| Gambling is West Virginia's largest industry, generating several billion dollars, more
money than the state's budget. This week's Powerball lottery is attracting a record
number of participants.
The Powerball jackpot
is reaching an all time
record. No one hit the
five numbers and the
Powerball number
Saturday so the
jackpot has grown to
$280 million dollars.
The drawing will
be on Christmas Day.
Because the Powerball jackpot is so high
the West Virginia lottery is running
Public Service Announcements urging
people to play within their means.
Lottery officials say you have just as
good of odds of winning with one ticket
as you do with several tickets.
When South Carolina and Pennsylvania
joined the pool of states that participate
in Powerball the game was changed
somewhat. Lottery officials wanted to
make certain that the jackpots remained
significant so they had to make it more
difficult to win.
Because of that, if the
jackpot reaches the record high of $295
million dollars they will slow its growth.
In other words they will only let the
jackpot grow by $25 million dollars every
cycle. The other revenue collected will
filter down to the other cash prizes. For
example someone who matches five
numbers and not the Powerball normally
wins $100,000 they would then have the
opportunity to win $1 million dollars or
more. Bulla says over the past several
weeks West Virginia has had several
$100,000 winners.
Want to know the winner? CLICK lottery banner on The Herald. | 
