With $2.36b at stake, lottery hopefuls flock to a lucky store in Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES – Mr Caesar Sanchez looks out at the same sign all day, every day from his electronics shop in downtown Los Angeles: “Billionaire made here.”

The B on that sign is pasted over an old M to update the word “millionaire”, because in July the small convenience store sold a winning Powerball lottery ticket worth more than US$1 billion (S$1.36 billion). A sign in the form of a cheque above the register at the Las Palmitas Mini Market marks the date (July 19, 2023) and the amount (US$1.08 billion) made out to an unknown “Lucky Player”.

Now another big Powerball drawing is about to happen – US$1.73 billion (S$2.36 billion) on Wednesday night – and the shop has become a go-to place for those who are eager to win big. Some people come in from other neighbourhoods or even other states.

The winner of the July jackpot still has not been identified, but winners have a year to come forward and often take their time.

Some people don’t realise they have won

, while others may be securing legal and financial advice.

“This is life-changing money,” said Ms Carolyn Becker, a spokesperson for California Lottery.

Wednesday’s drawing will be the second-largest ever jackpot in the United States. Huge jackpots have become increasingly common in the multi-state Mega Millions and Powerball lottery drawings because of changes to the games over the years and higher ticket prices.

Los Angeles County has seen this level of luck before: In 2022, a winning US$2 billion Powerball ticket was sold at a petrol station just north of Pasadena.

While Mr Sanchez looks at that sign with the makeshift B, he said he won’t be tempted to play. His wife, though, had already tried her luck by buying tickets before Wednesday’s drawing at that very store, and he acknowledged that “you never know”.

He added, with that inevitable hopefulness induced by lotteries: “Maybe I can be the lucky one.”

Many people in the neighbourhood feel at least some excitement at the possibility that luck might strike again.

Mr Fred Hendricks, who lives nearby, said he started buying Powerball tickets at Las Palmitas after he heard about the winning ticket in July.

Walking out of the shop and into the city’s hot October sunshine Tuesday, he was optimistic.

“It could happen again,” he said. In the event of winning big, he said, he would financially secure the future of his children and donate money to charity.

Playing the Powerball costs US$2 a ticket. You can choose your own numbers or opt for a quick pick, which generates a random sequence. Drawings are held Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays at 10.59pm Eastern time.

“I’m going to buy it today,” Ms Marina Diaz said as she worked at a clothing store about a block away. She said she would buy one ticket at her local petrol station and one at the lucky market before Wednesday’s drawing.

“I hope I win something,” she said.

Las Palmitas earned US$1 million from the California Lottery for selling the winning ticket in July, and business at the store is up 40 per cent, Ms Maria Menjivar, who owns the shop, said in a statement released by the lottery agency.

Before July, she added, business was so bad that she had worried that she might have had to close the store.

The odds: One in 292 million

The home of the billion-dollar-plus ticket is a small, unassuming store in the Fashion District that caters to a steady stream of locals who come in for lottery tickets, ice cream, sodas and other conveniences.

The streets around it are home to wholesale stores selling wedding dresses, quinceañera dresses and other types of clothing, less than a mile from Skid Row, an area where thousands of homeless people live in tents.

That people have travelled from far away to buy their lottery tickets at the lucky shop is not uncommon, Ms Becker said, adding that buyers tended to be very superstitious. But she said that she had never heard of the same store selling two jackpot tickets.

But playing the Powerball isn’t a rational pursuit: Your odds of winning the full US$1.73 billion this week are roughly one in 292 million.

That’s no deterrent for Mr Paul Cunningham, who used his US$8 winnings from a previous drawing to buy more Powerball tickets at Las Palmitas.

Driving in from the nearby Echo Park neighbourhood this week, he said it was his second time trying his luck at Las Palmitas. He said he would keep returning to the store.

“When it’s this amount of money, you got to,” he said.

Ms Katy Krantz, an artist who works in the nearby Bendix Building, said the neighbourhood was excited and a little shocked when news of the billion-dollar prize dropped in downtown Los Angeles in July.

“One billion is hard to wrap your head around,” she said. But, she added: “I don’t think lightning is going to strike twice.” NYTIMES