Lottery players hoping to win what may be a $2 billion Powerball jackpot on Oct. 11 are using creative ways to find numbers for the oodles of tickets they’re buying. Thousands of them are coming to the Powerball Lottery Generator page on Bonus as a result.
That’s because even though the jackpot for tonight’s drawing is an estimated $1.73 billion, the real total may already be higher.
Powerball’s press release today said:
Final ticket sales will determine whether the Powerball jackpot exceeds its estimate at the time of the drawing tonight.
Those ticket sales are growing by the hour as the 11 p.m. EST drawing nears.
In the Lone Star State, the Texas Lottery posted on X:
- As of 2:15 p.m. EST, “hourly sales per minute” were $11,698
- At 3:08 p.m., they were $12,859
- By 4:11 p.m., hourly sales per minute reached $14,497
- With a few hours to go before the drawing, the 5:11 p.m. report was $19,222
- At 6:14 p.m., the lottery tallied a jump to $23,985
That meant that between 5:11 and 6:14 p.m. today, Powerball ticket sales in Texas jumped $1.4 million from $5.7 million to $7.1 million for the day.
If those figures aren’t enough to demonstrate Americans’ ramped-up excitement about tonight’s Powerball jackpot, take a look at how many lottery ticket buyers are finding their numbers on the Powerball Lottery Generator.
Since the July 19 drawing that yielded $1.08 billion for a ticket buyer in California, that page on Bonus has been visited more than 40,000 times by guests using the “generate” button to pick their Powerball numbers. More than 16,000 of those visits happened since the Powerball jackpot reached $1.04 billion on Oct. 2.
If it feels like the last $2 billion Powerball jackpot didn’t happen that long ago, it’s because a Californian won $2.04 billion on Nov. 7, 2022. Powerball and Mega Millions prize pots have gotten larger and larger since 2016. Plus, in 2021, Powerball added a third drawing during the week. So now, the largest jackpots seem to take about three months to accumulate.
This Powerball Jackpot Is Generating Online Interest
Peter Sullivan, founder and CEO of Jackpocket, provided his thoughts to Bonus today.
The lottery ticket courier buys tickets for online customers in many states.
Sullivan told Bonus today:
The excitement around the lottery during these high jackpot moments shows just how far Jackpocket and the industry have come. Over the last year, Jackpocket users were responsible for up to 13% of all Powerball tickets sold in the states where it operates, and reached even higher market share in some states for particular drawings.
States with residents buying tickets via Jackpocket are seeing notable piqued interest in five jurisdictions.
Sullivan told Bonus today:
Idaho is currently seeing the greatest week-over-week growth in Powerball ticket orders at 110%.
The other four are as follows:
- Arkansas: 98% growth
- Massachusetts: 93%
- Colorado: 93%
- Oregon: 93%
Lotto.com also responded to a request for comment from Bonus.
Like Jackpocket, Lotto.com is a lottery ticket courier registered with the New Jersey Lottery.
Lotto.com CEO Thomas Metzger told Bonus today:
Lotto.com shares the national excitement as we anticipate the results of the $1.73B Powerball drawing tonight! These high jackpots are a phenomenal trend right now, bringing people together to raise incremental funds for the good causes lotteries support.
On Saturday, Akshay Khanna — CEO and co-founder of lottery ticket courier Jackpot.com — told Bonus:
One of the main reasons we’re seeing these higher jackpot amounts is because it’s becoming easier and easier to purchase lottery tickets online – including through our Jackpot.com platform. What we’re seeing is that, like most everything else, consumers want to buy lottery tickets directly from their phone, from their couches, without having to leave the house. Why would you opt to go to a local gas station when you can get your ticket on your phone?
It’s important to note that lottery ticket couriers must buy retail tickets for their online customers. Also, most lottery ticket purchasers still traipse to retail stores.
What Will Hopeful Jackpot Winners Buy?
Sullivan told Bonus today that he hears anecdotes from Jackpocket customers.
He added:
I’m always hearing from Jackpocket fans about what they’d do if they won. In fact, Jackpocket actually recently released survey data about this and found that the first things Americans would do with their winnings would be paying off existing debt (29%), putting money aside to take care of family and friends (15.9%), and investing the money (15%).
Jackpot.com told Bonus its survey results were a bit different.
The survey said:
- People are “whipped” — spouses and partners were the most likely to get a piece of people’s lotto winnings (~12.5%).
- Not much sibling love — people are about as likely to share winnings with friends or distant relatives as siblings (<4%).
- The friendly gender — Men are much more likely to share with their friends than women (~6% vs ~2%).
- Gen Z dreams of home — while paying off debt was the top priority for the most respondents (~32%), buying a house/real estate was the most popular choice for those 18 to 24 years old (~24%).
- Crypto is dead — only about 1% of consumers would use lotto winnings to buy crypto or NFTs (about the same … as those who would invest in psychoactive pharmaceuticals and/or paid companionship).
Oh. Meanwhile, the Texas Lottery reports the Powerball Jackpot is seeing even more interest:
Current #Texas #Powerball sales for the Oct. 11 drawing are as follows:
The 5:00 – 5:59 p.m. hour included $1,923,878 in Powerball® draw sales.
Current hourly sales per minute in Texas are $32,065.— Texas Lottery (@TexasLottery) October 11, 2023
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