Problems with Powerball Machines
By: Import User
Updated: January 7, 2009
The big lottery Powerball will be drawn tonight, but if you tried to buy a lottery ticket earlier today, you may have had a bit of a problem. Around 9:30 this morning Powerball machines all across the state of Missouri went down. The cause seems to be a severed telephone line and it affected over 500 machines across the Show-Me-State. This was very discouraging to gamblers because the jackpot is up to $200 million dollars. Before the system went down, sales were brisk, especially at the Texaco on 32nd Street in Joplin. Last night alone they sold over 600 tickets. One motorist told us that he drove over 500 miles to get a ticket and was turned away from every convenience store he went to. Now since the Powerball covers multiple states, lottery officials do not plan to extend the time to buy the tickets. The cut off time is 8:59 pm. The drawing will still be held tonight, but the chances of the winner being from Missouri have been greatly reduced.
