GREENSBORO, NC -- You've heard it over and over, you have a 1 in 292 million chance of winning the Powerball. But your odds were even more skewed if you picked your numbers at a local grocery store.
Check out the old Powerball play slip from before October when the game changed. The regular balls were 59 -- instead of 69 and there are 35 red Powerballs to pick from instead of 26. The old play slip was at a Lowe's grocery store in Randolph county. How did it get there? The store management's best guess: a few old slips just got mixed in with the new slips.
The lottery terminal wouldn't actually read the old slip, so the cashier had to manually punch in the numbers. Because players got their tickets, there is no talk of reimbursement. 2WTK is taking a look at how the lottery keeps the terminals and materials up to date.
In this case, a lottery spokesperson says a lottery rep will be at the grocery store making sure all the old slips are gone. There are nearly 6,900 lottery outlets. Each store terminal is part of a centralized state system. Every day, all terminals are closed from 2am to 5am. This is the time the lottery accesses the terminals and makes fixes. Last year, there were 22,400 retailer visits for service. In addition to service visits lottery reps visit all stores every three to four weeks. If something is wrong with a terminal, the lottery's requirement is a field rep is on scene within 2 hours in an urban area and four hours in rural areas.
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