The Powerball jackpot for tonight’s drawing is set at 250-million dollars. Iowa Lottery spokeswomen Mary Neubauer says things have taken off like a rocket after the Fourth of July.She says sales dropped off during the holiday weekend, and the jackpot was initially set at 240-million dollars following Saturday’s drawing. But, she says sales have picked back up and that’s why the jackpot estimate was raised. Neubauer says the jackpot number could go up again. She says the next computation won’t be made until right before the drawing tonight. Neubauer says the jackpot is based on sales, and sales always hit their peak on the day of the drawing. She says they’ve seen sales go as high as three-thousand-a-minute during other big jackpots, and that could happen again. Neubauer says their figures indicate people aren’t spending large amounts individually. She says the overall average for sales is one to three dollars per purchase, so she says people are having fun and using their entertainment dollars on tickets. Iowa’s casinos reported an increase in spending in the last fiscal year that ended June 30th. Neubauer doesn’t know if the lottery business followed that gambling trend.She says they don’t have the final sales figures in yet, but she say they believe the sales figures will be up when the final results are tallied. The current jackpot has been growing since the drawing on May 10th and has crossed into the 200 million dollar range for just the fourth time since Powerball’s start in 1992.
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