Perhaps this is your last day, dear reader, of putting up with:
The clock.
The drive.
The boss (Yeah, the boss.).
If you've bought a Powerball ticket — and, really, who hasn't? — your life could change Wednesday night, when the next drawing takes place. The lottery has reached $1.5 billion, a world record. After weeks of rolling over with no winners, the multistate lottery prize represents almost unimaginable wealth for someone, or ones.
Almost unimaginable. The optimists in the operations division of the InterContinental Hotels Group in Dunwoody have been weighing their options if they win. Sixteen employees each tossed a ten in the pot, meaning they've bought 80 of the $2 tickets. Mustafa Suer is heading up the pool.
“If we win, oh my God!” Suer exclaimed Tuesday. “We could buy a small nation.”
This isn't the first time the group has reached for this most golden of rings. Last week, when the jackpot stood at $900 million, Suer suggested everyone take a chance. Everyone did. For its $160 investment, the group won $27.
When the jackpot topped $1 billion, Suer put out the call again. Again, his colleagues responded with cash and crossed fingers. Surely, they figured, chance wouldn’t cheat them again — even with odds at 292 million to 1.
They’re so confident of hitting it big that the group has a plan: where to meet (a secret place) after the numbers are revealed; who’ll hold the winning ticket; and which lawyer they’ll hire to take care of the fine print in this fine prize.
“Our company will need a really good plan to replace 16 people at once,” Suer said. “I don’t think anybody will stay here.”
That kind of cash? You look after family, said Donald Graham. Tuesday afternoon, he waited in line to dance with lady luck at Chevron Food Mart at the corner of Covington Highway and Park Central Boulevard in unincorporated DeKalb. The store is one of the top retailers of lottery tickets in the state.
“Oh, it’s all about family,” said Graham, who lives near the store, east of Decatur. “”When I leave this world, I’d know I’d looked after my children, my grandchildren.”
How about you, Mary Archer? The Lithonia resident, another Powerball customer, smiled. “I would pay off my car.” She has an ‘07 Nissan Versa — a nice ride, sure, but …
“Well,” she allowed, “I would think about buying a new car.”
Kimberly Starks, media relations manager for the Georgia Lottery Corp., has heard this sort of thing before. On Monday, Starks said, Powerball tickets were selling at "a brisk pace."
Yeah, and “a number of cars” are on Georgia 400 during rush hour.
This bodes well for Georgia’s school kids, Starks said. Since Nov. 7, when this latest Powerball started rolling and picking up momentum, it has generated nearly $27 million for pre-K and HOPE scholarships in Georgia, she said.
So, does that mean you have your ticket, Ms. Starks? Are you in a Lottery lottery pool? She laughed.
“No,” she said. “Lottery employees can’t play.”
That’s OK, Starks said. She adhered to the company line:
“I’m excited,” she said, “because ultimately it’s the students of Georgia who win.”
The winners also might include a group of hotel employees who are in the market for a nation — preferably something small, and warm, surrounded by an ocean.
Players have until 10 p.m. Wednesday to buy $2 tickets, according to lottery officials. The drawing is held at 11 p.m. EST.
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