BY MIKE BRANOM
Associated Press Writer DES MOINES, Iowa - Enough tickets were sold so that the estimated Powerball jackpot was larger than expected, but there wasn't the frenzy to buy chances as there was in the last big jackpot.
That may change for Saturday's drawing when the jackpot will be an estimated $180 million. There was no winner Wednesday, although there were 30 $100,000 winners. Numbers drawn Wednesday night were 1, 22, 23, 30, 49 and powerball 33.
As many as 400 of Kentucky's 2,700 lottery terminals shut down for about 2 1/2 hours Wednesday afternoon as lottery players started buying last-minute tickets.
The terminals, in the central and eastern part of the state, shut down around 5 p.m. EDT, lottery spokesman Rick Redman said. A failure in telephone company equipment caused lines somewhere between Danville and Louisville to go down, he said.
GTE and lottery technicians tried rerouting the connection through Winchester, but the backup system also failed, Redman said.
The problem was fixed around 7:40 p.m., Redman said. It was not known how much revenue might have been lost.
As Wednesday's Powerball drawing approached, with an advertised estimated jackpot of $125 million, hopeful players were expected to line up for a chance at the second-largest jackpot in U.S. history.
But while ticket sales were brisk, the tumult that accompanied May's drawing for a record $195 million was nowhere to be seen.
"We were very busy this morning, maybe nine or 10 people lined up," said Aman Kaur, manager of Hawkeye Pantry in downtown Des Moines. "But there wasn't a really long line. Maybe this afternoon."
Although the expected frenzy wasn't there, a few more tickets were sold than expected. At the drawing, the Multi-state Lottery Association raised the estimated jackpot to $126.8 million.
Even when people bought Powerball tickets at the convenience store, they did not show any of the attitude seen in May, when it was common for a player to plunk down hundreds of dollars.
Sue Brownlee and two of her coworkers at an insurance company each bought just a single ticket at Hawkeye Pantry.
"It does seem a lot calmer here" compared to May, Brownlee said.
Peg Bartelt, a clerk at a Clark gasoline station in Milwaukee, said purchases were down from when Frank and Shirley Capaci of Streamwood, Ill., won the May jackpot on a ticket purchased in Wisconsin.
"The last time was the first time that it ever got that high and people kind of got a novelty out of it," Bartelt said. "Pretty much now it's the regular ones who buy."
Duke Morris, an employee of Barret Liquors in Louisville, Ky., estimated an increase of sales around 30 percent over regular ticket sales.
"It's definitely brisk, but not like last time," Morris said. In Greenwich, Conn., eight Powerball players have been felled by heat exhaustion over the past three days as they waited to buy tickets. Four people went to the hospital and were treated; the other four refused treatment.
In Powerball - which is played in 20 states and Washington D.C. - players choose five white balls from a pool of 49 and a red ball from a pool of 42. There is a 1-in-80 million chance of winning.
The cash option value for Wednesday's drawing would be about $70 million. The winner would receive a lump-sum, single check of $44.8 million after taxes, or $3.2 million a year after taxes if the buyer chose the 25-year annuity plan.
Despite the lack of widespread frenetic ticket-buying, sales are were reported to be steady throughout the states offering Powerball. Iowa took in $400,000 in sales Tuesday and was expected to reach $1 million Wednesday.
"Our sales aren't showing any lack of interest," Iowa State Lottery spokesman Joe Hrdlicka said.
Said Minnesota State Lottery spokesman Geoff Gorvin: "It just takes a bigger and bigger jackpot to get people whipped up." And in Wisconsin, state lottery director Don Walsh said he expected final figures to show 2.2 million tickets sold for the three-day period Sunday through Tuesday, doubling to 4.5 million with purchases Wednesday.
"It amazes me why everybody waits until the last minute, but there must be something exciting about waiting until the last minute to buy your ticket," he said.
