Illinois Lottery hosts Powerball ticket giveaway ahead of $1 billion drawing

SKOKIE, Ill. – Powerball fever is back in Illinois as the jackpot for Wednesday night’s drawing has reached a staggering $1 billion.

If someone wins the jackpot, it would be the seventh-largest jackpot won in U.S. history, according to Illinois Lottery officials.

To celebrate the massive jackpot, the Illinois Lottery hosted a ‘Powerball Ticket Grab Challenge’ at five of the “winningest” Powerball stores in Illinois, giving players a chance to win free tickets ahead of the 10 p.m. drawing.

Players got in on the action at Kostner Korner in Skokie Wednesday, trying their luck inside a money machine for five seconds to grab as many Powerball tickets as they can.

The location is one of Illinois Lottery’s top five ‘winningest’ Powerball stores in Illinois – selling the most winning Powerball tickets in 2023, and customers are banking on Kostner Korner to bring them luck.

“I feel lucky. [I’ll] invest it. I’ll maybe go on vacation too,” one customer said.

“We were having lunch. I told her, I said ‘oh the Powerball, it’s a billion dollars.’ And she’s never bought and I said, ‘well we’re going’.”

The $1 billion Powerball top prize is drawing the lion’s share of attention, but the competing Mega Millions lottery jackpot is also reaching massive heights.

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Ahead of Friday night’s drawing, that jackpot stands at $720 million, the seventh-largest in the game’s history.