The digital sign still flashes “POWERBALL” and “MEGA MILLIONS” in
splashy, gold and red lettering at the BP station on U.S. 40 in
Catonsville, one of the Maryland Lottery’s top retailers.Get more news
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But interest has slipped from mega to meager in the two national games,
which once produced frenzied sales. Jackpots once topping $1 billion
have tumbled during the coronavirus pandemic, and the public has become
numb to what once seemed to be astonishingly large prizes.
Irving Redditt, 63, of Baltimore, bought Powerball and Mega Millions
tickets recently at the gas station, which is decorated with colorful
lottery advertisements, purple Baltimore Ravens paraphernalia and a sign
reading “Live the life you’ve imagined.”
But the retiree seemed more interested in a variety of other lottery
offerings and didn’t plan to watch the televised Powerball and Mega
Millions drawings — each held twice a week at 11 p.m. — to find out
whether he won.
The jackpots for the drawings that week were $179 million for Powerball and $188 million for Mega Millions.
Faced with declining sales, the multistate games’ managers scaled back
the jackpots in April as the first wave of the pandemic worsened and
many states and cities asked residents to stay at home.
While the current jackpots are hardly puny, they pale in comparison to
the $1.6 billion Powerball jackpot in 2016 and $1.5 billion Mega
Millions top prize in 2018.
Those record-high hauls led many Marylanders to line up at convenience
stores and gas stations trying to defy unfathomable odds by buying $2
tickets, sometimes in bulk. No Marylander ended up sharing in either of
the gargantuan jackpots.
That was the craziest time,” said Khawaja Jamal, manager of the BP
station, which lures players by offering them special parking, a smoking
deck and a lounge in which regulars chat like people at a neighborhood
bar or barbershop.
But the excitement abated after the monster jackpots of several years
ago, and Powerball and Mega Millions sales began to decline in Maryland
and other states. The games — in which players pick or are randomly
given numbers to try to match those selected in a drawing — are
available in 45 states and Washington, D.C.
