Yesterday, reports stated that tonight's Powerball Jackpot might hit $450 million.  Now, after "blistering" sales the past day or so, that jackpot has ballooned to $550 for tonight's drawing.  According to this story in the Chicago Tribune, folks in the participating 42 states have the lotto fever!

Yesterday during the midday lunch period, Illinois Lottery reported sales of over $200,000 in Powerball tickets.  Today, I hopped over to the East Peoria Hucks (which was cranking 95-5, GLO, thanks!) and saw them doing a brisk business on those tickets.  The manager said he was a little fuzzy from "Powerball burnout."  Tonight's drawing is coming up at 9:59 pm.

Accoring to a story I read on Yahoo today, here are some tips for winning the huge jackpot.  BTW, the world record lottery jackpot was $656 million this March in the Mega Millions game.  

1)  Don't bother letting the machine easy pick your numbers.  Your numbers have no worse chance of winning and they're "yours."  Own them.

2)  If you pick popular numbers like 7 and numbers under 31 (birthday numbers), if you do hit the jackpot, you'll end up sharing it with more people.  Don't be afraid to take obscure numbers.

3)  The only real way to increase your odds of winning is to buy more $2 tickets.  Sorry.

4)  Don't pick the same Powerball number for all your tickets.  You'll increase your odds by using different numbers.

5)  It may all be a waste of your cash because I'm pretty sure I'm holding the winning numbers already!

Doc Watson