\n<\/p>\n
BALA CYNWYD, Pa. (WPVI) — <\/span>With a Powerball Jackpot that’s grown to $1.8 billion, people in the Philadelphia area are calling on Lady Luck to be in their favor.<\/p>\n A steady stream of people came to the Acme grocery store on City Avenue in Bala Cynwyd to buy their tickets on Friday.<\/p>\n When asked if he was holding the winning ticket, Michael Hu of University City smiled and replied: “It better be! (I’ve been) waiting all my life.”<\/p>\n Some customers chose to buy their tickets from the cashier. Others trusted the machine to pick a winner.<\/p>\n Brenda Verner of Bala Cynwyd was among those who got their numbers from the machine. She bought 16 tickets.<\/p>\n “It just feels like wouldn’t it be nice (to win),” she said, “but we’ll see.”<\/p>\n The $1.8 billion Powerball Jackpot has a cash value of $826.4 million. It’s the second biggest jackpot in lottery history.<\/p>\n “I only (bought a ticket) because it’s in the billions right now,” said Angela Jones of Overbrook. “It’s like wow! That’s like amazing right? Everybody should win!”<\/p>\n Still, some weren’t convinced that the gamble is worth spending $2.<\/p>\n “I just don’t play. I’m sorry,” said Shawana Freeman of West Oak Lane.<\/p>\n Others were not only taking a chance and buying a ticket, they were already making plans for what they’d do with all that money.<\/p>\n “Oh my God. It’s so many things,” said Jerry Flucker, who’s visiting Philadelphia from Pensacola, Florida. “I’ll take the whole family on a trip.”<\/p>\n The Acme on City Avenue might be their lucky charm. On Monday, the store sold a ticket that was worth $1 million. It’s enough to make the once-skeptical think twice. Just five minutes after saying she wasn’t interested in buying a ticket, Freeman handed over her $2 to take a chance.<\/p>\n “It was peer pressure,” she said with a big smile.<\/p>\n “Probably FOMO (fear of missing out),” laughed Michael Hu of University City when asked why he bought a ticket. “With a jackpot this big, I feel I should at least try.”<\/p>\n Statistically, you’re more likely to get hit by a piece of space debris than to hit the jackpot. But if you’re feeling lucky, the winning Powerball numbers will be drawn Saturday night.<\/p>\n Copyright \u00a9 2025 WPVI-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" BALA CYNWYD, Pa. (WPVI) — With a Powerball Jackpot that’s grown to $1.8 billion, people in the Philadelphia area are calling on Lady Luck to be in their favor. A steady stream of people came to the Acme grocery store on City Avenue in Bala Cynwyd to buy their tickets on Friday. When asked if […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28203,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cdn.abcotvs.com\/dip\/images\/17753345_090525-wpvi-local-powerball-hopefuls-5pm-video-vid.jpg?w=1600","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11573],"tags":[18481,3720,6192,685,9093,15845,1702,9262,15844],"class_list":["post-28202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-philadelphia-breaking-news","tag-18481","tag-billion","tag-billionaire","tag-chance","tag-dreams","tag-jackpot","tag-line","tag-locals","tag-powerball"],"rttpg_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/cdn.abcotvs.com\/dip\/images\/17753345_090525-wpvi-local-powerball-hopefuls-5pm-video-vid.jpg?w=1600",0,0,false],"landscape":["https:\/\/cdn.abcotvs.com\/dip\/images\/17753345_090525-wpvi-local-powerball-hopefuls-5pm-video-vid.jpg?w=1600",0,0,false],"portraits":["https:\/\/cdn.abcotvs.com\/dip\/images\/17753345_090525-wpvi-local-powerball-hopefuls-5pm-video-vid.jpg?w=1600",0,0,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/cdn.abcotvs.com\/dip\/images\/17753345_090525-wpvi-local-powerball-hopefuls-5pm-video-vid.jpg?w=1600",150,150,false],"medium":["https:\/\/cdn.abcotvs.com\/dip\/images\/17753345_090525-wpvi-local-powerball-hopefuls-5pm-video-vid.jpg?w=1600",300,300,false],"large":["https:\/\/cdn.abcotvs.com\/dip\/images\/17753345_090525-wpvi-local-powerball-hopefuls-5pm-video-vid.jpg?w=1600",1024,1024,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/cdn.abcotvs.com\/dip\/images\/17753345_090525-wpvi-local-powerball-hopefuls-5pm-video-vid.jpg?w=1600",1536,1536,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/cdn.abcotvs.com\/dip\/images\/17753345_090525-wpvi-local-powerball-hopefuls-5pm-video-vid.jpg?w=1600",2048,2048,false],"post-thumbnail":["https:\/\/cdn.abcotvs.com\/dip\/images\/17753345_090525-wpvi-local-powerball-hopefuls-5pm-video-vid.jpg?w=1600",370,265,false],"kava-thumb-s":["https:\/\/cdn.abcotvs.com\/dip\/images\/17753345_090525-wpvi-local-powerball-hopefuls-5pm-video-vid.jpg?w=1600",150,85,false],"kava-thumb-s-2":["https:\/\/cdn.abcotvs.com\/dip\/images\/17753345_090525-wpvi-local-powerball-hopefuls-5pm-video-vid.jpg?w=1600",230,230,false],"kava-thumb-m":["https:\/\/cdn.abcotvs.com\/dip\/images\/17753345_090525-wpvi-local-powerball-hopefuls-5pm-video-vid.jpg?w=1600",400,400,false],"kava-thumb-m-vertical":["https:\/\/cdn.abcotvs.com\/dip\/images\/17753345_090525-wpvi-local-powerball-hopefuls-5pm-video-vid.jpg?w=1600",370,500,false],"kava-thumb-m-2":["https:\/\/cdn.abcotvs.com\/dip\/images\/17753345_090525-wpvi-local-powerball-hopefuls-5pm-video-vid.jpg?w=1600",570,450,false],"kava-thumb-l":["https:\/\/cdn.abcotvs.com\/dip\/images\/17753345_090525-wpvi-local-powerball-hopefuls-5pm-video-vid.jpg?w=1600",1170,650,false],"kava-thumb-xl":["https:\/\/cdn.abcotvs.com\/dip\/images\/17753345_090525-wpvi-local-powerball-hopefuls-5pm-video-vid.jpg?w=1600",1920,1080,false],"kava-thumb-masonry":["https:\/\/cdn.abcotvs.com\/dip\/images\/17753345_090525-wpvi-local-powerball-hopefuls-5pm-video-vid.jpg?w=1600",600,999,false],"kava-thumb-justify":["https:\/\/cdn.abcotvs.com\/dip\/images\/17753345_090525-wpvi-local-powerball-hopefuls-5pm-video-vid.jpg?w=1600",640,640,false],"kava-thumb-justify-2":["https:\/\/cdn.abcotvs.com\/dip\/images\/17753345_090525-wpvi-local-powerball-hopefuls-5pm-video-vid.jpg?w=1600",1280,640,false]},"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"#RiseCelestialStudios","author_link":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/author\/ralph-c\/"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":"Philadelphia Viral News<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"BALA CYNWYD, Pa. (WPVI) — With a Powerball Jackpot that’s grown to $1.8 billion, people in the Philadelphia area are calling on Lady Luck to be in their favor. A steady stream of people came to the Acme grocery store on City Avenue in Bala Cynwyd to buy their tickets on Friday. When asked if…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28202"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28202\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28204,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28202\/revisions\/28204"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}