Powerball fever pushes jackpot to second highest level

Iowa Lottery officials have raised the projected jackpot for tomorrow’s Powerball drawing to 200-million dollars, up from 175-million. The new estimate will make it the third-largest lottery jackpot in world history, and the second-largest Powerball prize. Iowa Lottery Commissioner Ed Stanek, who created Powerball, says sales have been tremendous, justifying an increase in the financial forecast. He says they’ve already had 828-thousand dollars in sales through 11 today and just today they’ve done 165-thousand dollars in sales. Stanek says Powerball ticket sales have bounded in the past week, once the estimated jackpot hit nine-digits for the multi-state game. He says they sell about 17-hundred tickets a minute when the jackpot gets this high.Due to the frenzy of Powerball ticket sales, he says there is a chance the jackpot will grow even beyond 200-million dollars before the drawing tomorrow night. He says the start of school will divert attention away from the jackpot, so it’s unlikely to grow much more.Stanek says the statistics indicate there is a 70-percent chance there will be a jackpot winner tomorrow. Stanek talked with Radio Iowa this afternoon while standing beside a Des Moines billboard where crews were changing the big black-and-white “175” to “200.”