Middle Georgia residents pony up big money in quest for Powerball bonanza

It had been an ordinary day at the RaceWay food mart just across Mercer University Drive from a Waffle House and a diver's supply shop.

Until a guy stepped up to the counter and said something that made store clerk Matthew Rodrigues do a double take.

The RaceWay, a sleek beacon of roadside gas and grub at the edge of Interstate 475 in west Macon, is home to chips, coffee, beer, cigarettes, Krispy Krunchy Chicken gizzards and, among other delicacies, lottery tickets.

Last weekend, before the Powerball jackpot ballooned to $1 billion-plus, the guy at the counter, a local, announced that he was there to try his luck.

Give me $600 worth of Powerball tickets, he told Rodrigues, the clerk.

"I had to check with him five times," Rodrigues recalled Wednesday, 12 hours before the $1.5 billion jackpot drawing, the world's largest ever.

"It's historic," Rodrigues said, "and if you ever wanted to take a chance, this probably is the time."

The man who plunked down the $600 did so for last weekend's drawing when the jackpot was $800 million or so. He didn't strike it rich.

But late Wednesday morning as a steady stream of ticket buyers walked in, Rodriguez spoke of how it was such "big money" that while $600 might be a stretch, you'd almost be foolish not to take a $2 shot at winning.

One customer, a man who'd overheard Rodrigues talking about the fellow who shelled out $600 for tickets, said, "Are you kidding me?"

Then he turned to Rodrigues.

"I'm just gonna do $20 worth," he said, telling Rodrigues that if he won he would buy the store. "So you don't have to work all the time."

"Thank you, man," Rodrigues said. "Finally somebody thought about me."

In the Unionville neighborhood Wednesday morning, a woman at the Fastee Foods store at the corner of Montpelier and Pio Nono avenues bought a single Powerball ticket.

Clerk Danny Williams helped her pencil in her numbers on a play slip.

"I'm using my children's birthdays," she said. "I've got five boys, so I did their birthdays."

Williams, the clerk, said at least one customer there had bought $200 worth of Powerball chances.

"They'll buy a whole lot," he said. "You would be surprised."

At Family Food Plus, a small, tucked-away convenience mart at the corner of Forsyth and Monroe streets in downtown, people who might not ever stop there were dropping in because of the Powerball.

"If luck is working, it'd be an easy, smooth life," said clerk Hasmukh Patel. "Good for family, good for friends and good for the country, too -- they collect the tax."

To contact writer Joe Kovac Jr., call 744-4397.

This story was originally published January 13, 2016 at 5:33 PM with the headline "Middle Georgia residents pony up big money in quest for Powerball bonanza ."