NIPTON, Calif.—Lottery ticket buyers have to suspend their belief in math to drop $2 on an infinitesimal chance to win the Powerball jackpot, but in Nevada, they also have to drive across the desert and wait in lines that can stretch for hours.
In Hawaii and Alaska, they need to cross an ocean or mountains to reach a lottery kiosk.
As if the 1 in 292.2 million odds of winning weren’t inconvenient enough, people who live in the six states that don’t participate in Powerball must put in considerable extra effort to get a ticket.
With the giant jackpot on his mind, retiree William Burake drove 45 minutes Monday from his home in Henderson, Nevada, to buy tickets in Nipton, California. Then he waited three hours to spend $20 on 10 tickets at a store that is among the nation’s busiest lottery retailers.
“I thought maybe I'd be part of history,” said Burke, a Vietnam veteran who joined hundreds of people bundled in coats and scarfs before the doors opened at the Primm Valley Lotto Store off Interstate 15.
None of the six states has a lottery of any kind.
