The Powerball jackpot has climbed to a record $1.6 billion ahead of the next drawing on Saturday, setting off a frenzy of ticket buying across the country by routine lottery players and even some skeptics, hopeful that the 1-in-292.2-million odds of winning will tilt in their favor.
The winner would receive the largest payout in U.S. lottery history, eclipsing the $1.586 billion payout in 2016 to three Powerball winners in California, Florida and Tennessee, which set a world record, officials said.
At a Marathon gas station in Coral Gables, Fla., just outside Miami, the buzz from customers on Thursday afternoon inspired Saria Lopez, a cashier, to buy a Powerball ticket, which she said she usually does not do.
“One is enough, with luck,” Ms. Lopez, 60, said in Spanish.
She said the jackpot is a lot of money for just one person and if she won, she would share her winnings with her family and people who may be in need.
At a Chevron gas station in Miami on Thursday, Ruben Perez, 82, played a scratch-off ticket and fantasized about what he would do if one of the five Powerball tickets he bought had the winning numbers.
He said he would “take my wife and go somewhere better” than Miami, where he has lived for 20 years. One possible destination, he said, would be his wife’s native Honduras.
Mr. Perez, a former police officer and a longtime Powerball player, said he usually spends about $50 a week on the tickets.
“If I don’t have that, I will only play one ticket,” he said. “It only takes one ticket to win.”
“I just hope somebody that needs it, gets it,” he added. “Even if it’s not me.”