Lotto jackpot soars

The Tennessee Lottery Powerball Jackpot has soared to record levels, with $240 million or more in store for the next big winner. Lottery retailers see a big increase in ticket sales when the jackpot starts to accumulate. The Exxon/EZStop market at Chapman Highway and Hwy 411 has seen a lot more traffic as the Powerball winnings have skyrocketed, according to store employee Natalie McCarter. “When a jackpot gets this high, we’d expect to see four or five times the sales we’d normally see with a starting jackpot, which is a huge boost for education,” said Rebecca Paul, CEO and President of the Tennessee Lottery. The next biggest winners for the Tennessee Lottery are resident students. Starting in 2004, Lottery-funded scholarships have been available to Tennessee students who attend public or private universities and technical schools across the state. Those high school graduates who maintain at least a 3.0 grade average or score a 21 or higher on the ACT are eligible to receive up to $3,300 in scholarship monies each year. Students that keep up a B average in their college careers will continue to receive support from lotto-funded grants. “We get 200-dollar winners all the time,” said McCarter. “We just had a guy win $250,000 with a $10 Mega Slots ticket,” she said. Powerball drawings are held on Wednesdays and Saturdays at 10:59 p.m. and are broadcasted on WBIR - NBC Channel 10. Tennessee’s lottery began selling tickets on January 20, 2004. By June 30, this year, the Lottery had generated more than $359 million in funds for education programs, including college scholarships, pre-kindergarten and after-school programs.