Got THE ticket for tonight's big Powerball drawing? - CNN

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A retailer holds a Powerball lottery ticket at a store in Decatur, Georgia, on Friday, May 17. The multistate Powerball jackpot has risen to $600 million, with a cash value of $376.9 million, according to the Multi-State Lottery Association.

Lottery tickets are on display at a store in New York on Thursday, May 16. The Powerball jackpot marks the second-largest lottery jackpot in U.S. history. The largest was $656 million in the Mega Millions game in March 2012.

A customer purchases Powerball and Mega Millions lottery tickets in Decatur on May 17. The Powerball game is played in 43 states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

A lottery retailer pulls a Powerball ticket from the printer in Decatur on May 17. A single ticket costs $2.

A woman buys a ticket near a sign for the Powerball lottery in New York on May 16. The odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 175 million.

• Saturday's Powerball jackpot is the second-largest in U.S. history
• Powerball is played in 43 states and the District of Columbia
• Largest jackpot was $656 million in Mega Millions game in 2012

(CNN) -- Two dollars and a dream.
That's all it took for Mammie Hicks to plunk down money at a Riverside, Missouri, convenience store for a chance at Saturday's record $600 million multistate Powerball jackpot.
"People are more important than money. I'd just give it away ... to help people," she told CNN affiliate KCTV5 of Kansas City.
The jackpot, with a cash value of $376.9 million, marks the largest in Powerball history, surpassing a $587.6 million jackpot split by winners in Arizona and Missouri in November.
The largest lottery jackpot in U.S. history was $656 million in the Mega Millions game in March 2012. That was split by three tickets sold in Illinois, Kansas and Maryland.
That mark will be dwarfed if no one wins the Powerball jackpot Saturday. With no winner, the jackpot will be about $925 million for Wednesday's drawing, according to Kelly Cripe, spokeswoman for the Texas Lottery, which is part of the multi-state lotteries.

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The Powerball game is played in 43 states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands. A single ticket costs $2, and the odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 175,223,510.
Why you keep playing the lottery
But before you start dreaming of that mansion in Barbados, allow us to pour an icy bucket of mathematical reality over your head: You almost certainly aren't going to win.
You stand a better chance of walking onto the golf course and hitting two consecutive holes in one than winning that jackpot.
But that didn't stop hundreds from driving to the Trex Mart in Dearborn, Missouri, store where one of two winning tickets sold in last year's $587 million Powerball drawing.
About 100 people an hour were buying tickets at the store, one of the clerk's told CNN by telephone.
Back at the convenience store in Riverside, Jim Mansell said he was only buying one ticket.
"I figure if the good Lord intends you to win, you only need one ticket," he told KCTV. "But I don't know if the good Lord believes in gambling or not."
CNN's Scott Thompson contributed to this report.