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Big Dreams Send Powerball Jackpot Soaring To $535 Million

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Strong sales have sent the jackpot for Saturday night's Powerball drawing soaring.

The top prize is now a whopping $535 million, the fifth largest jackpot in the game's history.

Employees at Jesse's Express Cafe on Seventh Avenue said Powerball sales are booming, with some people spending as much as $200 on tickets for their workplace.

"They're playing like crazy -- 20s, 50s, 100s," one worker said. "They have a dream to win. They want to buy a house, they want to go on trips, they want to go buy a mansion, you know, all kinds of stuff. Fantasy."

With hundreds of millions of dollars up for grabs, Callum from Rosedale said he's definitely going in on this one.

"I didn't buy yet, but I will buy tickets, hopefully I'm going to win. I'm going to buy about 15 tickets," he said. "That would be grounds for me to quit my job and never look back again."

The odds of winning the grand prize is 1 in 292 million.

 

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