"Lucky" store sees big lottery business ahead of Powerball drawing | News

SALISBURY -  It's the fourth largest lottery jackpot in US history, and it has wannabe millionaires lining up to buy tickets all over our area.

The next Powerball drawing will take place Wednesday, and the winner will get $213 million if they choose the lump sum. No one came through during Saturday's estimated $253 million Powerball drawing, and though the chances of winning are very small, some folks are trying to better their odds by shopping at a lucky store.

"We've always been a pretty big store for lottery," said Matt Banish, owner of Village Grocery and Garden Shop on Highway 601 in Salisbury. There have been some big winners from tickets purchased at Village Grocery. Just last week regular player Tamara Vivian won a million dollars, though she ended up with just over $400,000 once all the taxes were paid.

On Wednesday morning lots of folks were hoping they were in line for the winning ticket, and Matt wished everyone one of them good luck. It has been good for his business.

"It's helping us to keep the doors open and the shelves stocked," Banish added.

And while many of the would be millionaires in line at Village Grocery might dream of fabulous homes or luxury cars, Emanuel Parker has a different motivation for wanting to win.

"If I won I would give back to my church mostly," Parker told WBTV.  "I would pay tithes off of it, I've been out of work for over three years, I would give back to the shelter and things like that, help my family."

And to increase his odds to sharing the wealth, he came out of his way to buy the ticket here, and his reason is like that of many others.

"Because a lot of people have been winning here," Parker said.

If you want to win, you'll need a little luck. Or maybe a lot of it.

We factored the odds and found that you have a one-in-a million chance of being struck by lightning, and there are better chances you'll be bitten by a shark with those odds at one-in-11-point-5 million.

So what are the odds of winning the Powerball?  That's a one-in-175-million chance.