SAN ANTONIO — Texas may not have sold the winning Powerball ticket of $2.04 billion, but state lottery officials say a convenience store in Houston sold a ticket worth $1 million.
“We didn’t go away empty handed. We did have one winner of the second-tier prize, a cool $1 million come out of Houston, a store by the name of Cs Speedy Mart sold that winning ticket,” said Gary Grief, executive director of the Texas Lottery Commission.
The Minnesota Lottery reported problems with its sales verification system, which resulted in the delayed Powerball drawing to Tuesday morning.
The record $2.04 billion Powerball ticket was sold at Joe’s Service Center in Altadena, Calif.
“We’re all just relieved that the drawing was able to go off without a hitch. Again, the only downside for us, no big multi-billionaire winner in Texas,” Grief said. “It was just a matter of one state trying to get all their transactions processed and we certainly didn’t want to conduct a drawing before that occurred. That would have been in violation of all our security protocols.”
San Antonio’s Powerball craze is apparent, as one Shell gas station off Fredericksburg Road sold more than $2,000 worth of tickets on Monday.
“It’s crazy the higher the jackpot goes. The more people you’ve got, the more tickets they buy,” said Shell sales associate Dawn Petty.
Zakary Menendez longs for the day when he wins the lottery. But it’s going to be a while before the Powerball reaches the $2 billion mark.
“I want someone that I know to win so I can get a little bit of that,” Menendez said. “I would buy a house. I wouldn’t have to worry about rent or anything, it would be nice.”