Joe Torres, a local convenience store clerk, sells a group of Powerball tickets to a customer on Tuesday. He said that the number of people coming into the store just to buy tickets has definately increased over the past few days. That is because just eight months after a $656 million Mega Millions jackpot set a world lottery record, Powerball is offering up a prize that would be the second highest. The $500+ million jackpot, the largest in Powerball’s history, represents a potential life-changing fortune. Chuck Strutt, executive director of Multi-State Lottery Association, predicts there’s about a 60 percent chance someone will win the big prize tonight. That has sent people running to buy tickets, both individually and with groups of others, trying to increase their odds of winning. Local convenience store clerks say that they have seen a lot more people coming in just to buy tickets, and expects it to get “crazy” by the time ticket sales stop tonight.

The jackpot already has defied long odds by rolling over 16 consecutive times without anyone hitting the big prize, which now stands at over $500 million dollars. Strutt puts the odds at around 5 percent there would be no winner in the entire run, including tonight.