Powerball jackpot of $137 million for tonight’s drawing

Powerball tickets are expected to be zipping out of those green Iowa Lottery machines today faster than Santa’s sleigh. The Iowa Lottery’s Mary Neubauer says this year’s Christmas Eve drawing is worth $137 million, though that could rise in the minutes before tonight’s drawing, based on sales. Neubauer expects Powerball tickets to sell in Iowa today at the rate of up to 2,000 every minute. She says the day of a drawing always sees the most ticket sales and she expects today’s sales to be particularly brisk, given the holiday and the size of the grand prize. It’s the second year in a row the jackpot’s been huge for the holiday. Last year, the Powerball prize was worth $314 million for a Christmas Day drawing. As for 2003, this is the 15th time the jackpot has been at $100 million or more. This jackpot has been growing since early November. Iowans have only won the big Powerball prize three times: Ed Brown of Washington split a $10.4 million jackpot with a Missouri woman in December 1992; Tim Schultz of Des Moines won $28 million in February 1999; and the Larry Hasken family of Sabula claimed a $31.8 million dollar jackpot in January 2000.