They want to hit bigger!
People aren’t as impressed with Wednesday night’s billion-dollar Powerball drawing, as the massive 10-figure jackpot has become all too common – with only about half as many people flocking to buy tickets as there has been around for a few years, according to experts and store owners.
“It’s called jackpot fatigue. People are less excited about a big prize than before because those big numbers are old news,” Victor Matheson, an economics professor at the College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts, told the Post.
The latest dizzying windfall comes after a mysterious Mega Millions player won $1.1 billion in New Jersey last week and failed to attract many non-regular ticket buyers, retailers said. Big Apple.
“They realize it’s going to cost a billion dollars over and over again, three or four times a year, so you don’t have to come,” said Gautam Das, 62, an employee at the BP gas station in Bayside, Queens. . “You can catch the next one… So no rush and it’s no big deal.”
Ticket sales tripled at the feed point when jackpots reached $1 billion – but no luck drawing crowds these days, the seller said.
“It’s not like before, when people were going crazy… They would come in and queue up to the station gate,” Das said.
It’s unclear whether anyone will win Wednesday night’s drawing, valued at $1.09 billion.
But many New Yorkers are yawning over the once eye-popping prize, which comes after lottery officials made it harder to get winnings in recent months, creating larger jackpots.
Lotteries are more likely to reach $1 billion than a few years ago because the lottery system has been revamped to create lower odds, Matheson said.
A $1 increase in ticket prices and a rise in interest rates also make the so-called lotto “rent” — the prizes advertised by lotteries — much higher.
“They’ve made it harder to win, so it’s more likely that someone will turn around a few times before they win,” he said. “And with interest rates, you don’t have to accumulate that much to reach $1 billion.”
The phenomenon has led to a drop in sales and often results in slower jackpot growth after an initial increase.
“Only half the number of people buying tickets nationwide for billion-dollar jackpots compared to 2022,” he said.
In October 2022, for example, a billion-dollar Powerball drawing sold 131 million tickets nationwide. In the case of Wednesday’s drawing, “they’ll be extremely lucky to sell 70 million tickets,” Matheson said.
George Damoulakis, owner of Evers Pharmacy in Cambria Heights, Queens, said he didn’t expect any more hubbub over a billion-dollar price tag.
“People still play, but when it was over a billion dollars… people came in droves!” There was a line of people outside my door saying, “I never play but this is so high.” I have to, you know, I have to get in there,’” he recalls.
“But people are no longer motivated by big numbers. There’s no rush with a billion dollars now. »
At the Bayside Smoke Shop in Queens, only a handful of die-hard lotto enthusiasts had purchased tickets for the Wednesday night drawing.
“It’s not like it was five years ago. Big jackpots, there would be a line. Now, no more queues,” said clerk Sandip Patel, 26.
“Before, people who didn’t play the lottery would come in and you’d hear them say, ‘This is my first time playing the lottery!’ ” “, did he declare. “No more.”
New York Post
