POWERBALL MONEY POOL GROWS AS PLAYERS GET NEW CHANCE

No one cracked the $67.5 million Powerball jackpot Saturday, driving the prize to an estimated $90 million for the midweek drawing.

Local lottery retailers anticipate brisk sales between now and Wednesday.

A $90 million jackpot would be the multistate lottery game's second-highest prize, topped by a $111 million jackpot won by a Wisconsin teacher last summer.

Mark Schario, grocery manager at Schapers IGA Foodliner in Jackson, said Sunday, "People basically have been coming in to check their tickets all day today.

"It's been a little busier than normal today," said Schario. "But most of the big rush is going to happen Tuesday and Wednesday. About all we do on those days is sell lottery tickets."

He said regular lottery players and relative newcomers turn out when games have big jackpots.

Jon Hinton at Schnucks in Cape Girardeau said the lottery counter was relatively quiet Sunday, but he's positive it's the calm before the storm.

"I'm sure it's going to be quite busy this week," he said. "It was quite busy Saturday and Friday too."

On Sunday, he said a few people stopped by the lottery counter to express disbelief that the jackpot hasn't been cracked.

When the prizes reach lofty status, Hinton said regular customers begin buying a lot more tickets.

"We also get a lot of new people who buy one or two tickets. ... That's a lot of money."

Lottery officials said 25 players won the $100,000 second prize by hitting the first five numbers. Of those tickets, Indiana and Minnesota each had four; Wisconsin and Rhode Island each had three; Iowa, Kansas and West Virginia had two; and Idaho, Kentucky, Missouri, Montana and the District of Columbia each had one.

Schario added that 6,278 people won $5 by picking three of the first five number correctly.

The winning numbers Saturday were 3, 4, 8, 9 and 44. The Powerball was 36.

To play Powerball, a person must select five numbers between 1 and 45, and one additional number between 1 and 45 as the Powerball.

Players can win nine ways on Powerball, ranging from $1 to the jackpot. If the Powerball number matches the Powerball number that is drawn, the player wins a prize. Without the Powerball number, a player needs at least three of the other five numbers to win a prize.

Powerball tickets are sold in 14 states -- Missouri, Iowa, Delaware, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Minnesota, Montana, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota, West Virginia, Wisconsin -- and Washington, D.C.

The highest Powerball payout came in July of this year when a school teacher matched all five numbers and the Powerball to win $111.2 million.

There was no complete match Wednesday, when the jackpot was worth $54 million.

(Some information was provided by The Associated Press.)