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For Barbara Diaz, all of this Powerball business was foreign to her social circle until last week.
“I heard a lot of my friends are doing it now. A lot of us don’t do that,” she said.
However, the possibility of holding a ticket worth $1.5 billion had Diaz plumping down $10 at the Convenience King on West Park Avenue in Houma. Had she won, the retiree said she would take the lump sum payment.
Unfortunately for Diaz, she was not the only one competing in the game. Millions across the country bought their tickets, and the Bayou Region was no exception. From the start of the year until last Wednesday’s record drawing – which had three winners – Terrebonne and Lafourche had about $1.96 million in Powerball sales, according to Louisiana Lottery data.
The sale numbers ramp up as the Powerball continued to grow. In each case, the day of the Powerball drawing featured a massive spike in sales. On Jan. 2, the day people vied for a measly $355 million, Terrebonne and Lafourche residents spent about $57,000 on tickets. Terrebonne more than doubled that amount by itself for the following drawing on Jan. 6, this time worth $528 million. Terrebonne dropped almost $119,000 on tickets that day, with Lafourche adding another $82,000 for a total of about $201,000.
In the next three days, Terrebonne and Lafourche gas stations sold about $668,000 in tickets, including $396,000 on the day of, for the Jan. 9 $948 million jackpot. Finally, in the four days tickets for the Jan. 13 $1.5 billion jackpot were available, Bayou Region buyers nearly topped the $1 million mark, coming just short at $951,000. Locals spent more than $549,000 on that Wednesday alone.
Katie Hebert made her contribution to Terrebonne’s lotto largesse. That Wednesday she was in the Convenience King to buy $45 worth of Powerball tickets, matching what she spent on the previous drawing. Just like Diaz, Hebert said that she does not usually play Powerball. However, the allure of the big payday was too much for Hebert and her husband.
For the people selling the tickets, this Powerball frenzy has been a windfall. Nick Robichaux manages the Convenience King on West Park as well as four other locations. He said that compared to average days, Powerball sales have quadrupled with the record jackpots. While the extra ticket sales are nice, Robichaux said that the rising jackpot also had peripheral benefits to the business.
“It brings more people to spend money not just on Powerball, but when they come to get Powerball they’ll get a soft drink, a candy, they’ll get some gas,” he said.
Johnakie Stewart, who was working the register at the store, said that the bustle had been growing with each increasing jackpot. “Oh, my gosh. It’s ridiculous. It was like almost to the barricade,” Stewart said, noting the barricade nearly 30 feet away.
Robichaux said in response to the mania, he has had to bring in some help to run additional registers or lotto machines.
The winning Powerball tickets were not in the Bayou Region. However, the businesses selling those Powerball tickets do get to keep their money. Since the start of the year, Terrebonne spent $1.15 million on the Powerball game. Based on 2014 population estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau, that would amount to each resident in the parish, children included, spending about $10 on the tickets. In Lafourche, their $814,000 in sales in 2016 amounts to more than $8 per person.
For those that chased after the titanic payday last week, there’s always next time. •
