For 10 years, Roger Neveau has been buying lottery tickets regularly, and in that amount of time, he's won 21 bucks, at most, on one ticket.
Neveau is among the masses holding out hope that one day those 21 bucks look more like 21 million.
"Yeah, I always buy two bucks worth," said Neveau. "At least it gives me a shot. You can't win if you don't play."
With no one winning Wednesday's Powerball, the jackpot has grown, making it among the largest in U.S. lottery history.
"You can see there's kind of been a jackpot mania in the last few years," said Peter Sullivan.
Sullivan is the founder and CEO of Jackpocket, a mobile app — live in 18 states and jurisdictions in the U.S. — that lets users play the official lottery from their own phone.
"This digital approach is allowing more people to participate for the first time ever," said Sullivan. "And more people are getting interested in the lottery due to that."
According to research from Statista Market Insights, revenue in the online lottery market is projected to reach more than $5 billion in 2024. Overall in 2023, U.S. lottery sales totaled more than $113 billion, according to the North American Association of State and Provincial Lotteries.
"We had four million-dollar-winners in the last month," said Sullivan. "We've never seen the amount of play that we've had."
It costs $2 to buy a Powerball ticket — which is offered in 45 states, as well as Washington D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The last time someone won the Powerball jackpot was on New Year's Day, with a player in Michigan winning more than $840 million.
Since then, there have been 40 consecutive drawings without a jackpot winner.
The 41st drawing will be held Saturday night, and if no one takes home the billion-dollar prize, it'll set a new record for most drawings without a jackpot winner.
People like Roger Neveau are hoping that changes with their lucky ticket.
"I'll buy a few more just to increase my supposed odds," he said.
Powerball jackpot surges to $1.23 billion after no winner
Despite no jackpot winner, nine tickets matched five of six numbers Wednesday to take home $1 million prizes.
