South Mississippians part of Powerball mania

SLIDELL -- For Alfonzo Walker of Biloxi, it was worth making the trip to Slidell on Tuesday.

"I've been coming over here for a while," Walker said. "But it's really exciting this week."

"Exciting" may be an understatement as Walker stands a chance at winning $400 million, the jackpot for the Louisiana Lottery Powerball. The drawing for the jackpot will be Wednesday.

Walker is one of many South Mississippians who made the trek westward to procure last-minute Powerball tickets. Vehicles with license plates from Harrison, Hancock, Lamar and Pearl River counties could be seen at a variety of convenience stores just off Interstates 10 and 59 on Tuesday morning as people lined up at the counters to buy a chance at making history.

"This is fourth-largest Powerball jackpot ever," lottery director of communications Kimberly Chopin said. "It is the sixth-largest jackpot of any lottery game in any state."

Chopin said the enormous jackpot has been extremely good for ticket sales.

"There is definitely a lot of excitement when it gets to a jackpot of this level," she said. "We did more than $3 million in Powerball ticket sales just last week. That's more than three times what we sold when the jackpot started on Nov. 4."

And she said she believes a lot of ticket buyers are driving over from the Magnolia State.

"We don't have any way of knowing for sure, because we don't ask the customers where they are from," Chopin said. "But we do see a lot more activity at our stores on the border of other states, especially along I-10 and I-59, so that leads us to believe that people from Mississippi are part of the Powerball excitement."

Winning the lottery is a simple process -- pay a minimum of $2, and you will receive a ticket with five sets of randomly chosen numbers from one through 69. For the more adventurous, the sets of five numbers can be hand-picked. All five numbers plus a sixth number must match the randomly generated drawing in order to claim the $400 million prize.

After the money has changed hands and the slip is in your possession, you have a chance at winning the jackpot, albeit a slim chance.

"The odds of winning the jackpot are one in 292.2 million," Chopin said.

Should you not win the jackpot, Chopin said not to fret, as there are other winning opportunities.

"The odds of winning any prize are one in 25," she said. "When the jackpot gets big, there's a lot of chatter about it and a lot more people are playing that may not know they can win another prize. There are nine levels of Powerball prizes."

Walker, who works in the gambling industry, said he knows the odds of winning the jackpot. But the odds didn't keep him from dreaming of helping others.

"If I won, I would pay off my bills and then I would set up a program to help single parents who are trying to get a house," he said.

This story was originally published January 5, 2016 at 4:47 PM with the headline "South Mississippians part of Powerball mania ."