Hundreds of hopeful lottery players lined up in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood Wednesday for a chance to grab free tickets for Wednesday’s massive Powerball drawing, which has climbed to $1.4 billion.
The Illinois Lottery hosted a “Ticket Grab Challenge” at Hyde Park Station & Car Wash, where participants got five seconds inside a wind tunnel machine to catch as many free Powerball tickets as possible, according to the Illinois Lottery.
“We had maybe about 50 to 80 people waiting in line even before the event started at 11 o’clock,” Illinois Lottery Director Harold Mays told ABC News. “We still have a line about a block away.”
The two-hour event offered more than 1,000 free “quick pick” tickets, where numbers are randomly generated rather than chosen by players. The prize, which has a cash value of $634.3 million, marks the sixth-largest jackpot in U.S. lottery history and the fourth-largest in Powerball history after 40 consecutive drawings without a winner since May 31.
The Illinois Lottery celebrated the massive jackpot by letting participants catch flying tickets in a cash-grab machine, while raising money for state education funding.
Illinois Lottery
“When jackpots get this high, we look for opportunities to engage with players,” Mays said. “We’re happy to see when jackpots get this high because it brings in a huge part of the population who we don’t normally get to engage with.”
According to Mays, while Illinois hasn’t seen a Powerball jackpot winner since 2013, the state has had five secondary billion-dollar winners this year alone.
The free event wasn’t just about potential winnings. The Illinois Lottery reported that 40 cents of every dollar spent on Powerball tickets supports K-12 education in Illinois. Since 1985, the lottery has contributed more than $25 billion to education funding in the state.
“Illinois Lottery is proud to be in a position to offer this opportunity to players and raise money for education at the same time,” Mays said.
Tonight’s drawing offers players across Illinois another chance at the fourth-largest Powerball jackpot and sixth-largest lottery jackpot in U.S. history.
Regular Powerball tickets remain available at nearly 7,000 retailers statewide for $2 each, with an optional $1 Power Play addition to multiply non-jackpot prizes.
