Powerball madness: $550 million jackpot, why not buy a ticket?

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) - More than half a billion dollars is up for grabs and we'll know the Powerball numbers around 11 p.m. Wednesday.  The odds of hitting the jackpot are incredibly slim, but several people we talked to claim they have the winning ticket.

Gas stations were packed Wednesday with people getting their tickets before time runs out.  It's a game of luck and chance! So, why not buy a $2 ticket for your chance to win the more than half a billion dollar jackpot?

"You could be that one person, you never know.  So, why can't it be me then," Sandra Bayne from Bluffton said.

A single winner would walk away with more than $360 million before taxes.  Everyone seems to have a system for choosing the winning numbers.

"We chose birth dates and addresses and stuff like that," Carol Stephens from Fort Wayne explained.

"Looking at the time on the clock - what time I went to bed last night.  I can't tell you what time.  You know someone else might try to use it.  The time I woke up this morning and what time I put my coffee on," Ollie Green from Fort Wayne said.

Everyone seems to think they'll have the lucky numbers that will be drawn Wednesday night.

"Yes I am.  I already won.  I'm just getting ready, I'm just waiting for them to call me and tell me."

So, what would you do with the hundreds of millions of dollars?

"A new Grand Cherokee Jeep unlimited.  I drive a Jeep now but I'd like to have a new one.  I'd probably give a lot of it away," Stephens said.

"I'm going to take a hike for about six months.  You know because people come out of the woodwork you know.  So, I won't have no woodwork for them to come out of.  They won't know where I'm at.  Oh yeah, I won't be working no more," Green said.

According to Powerball officials, Hoosiers actually have the best chance of winning.  Over the past 20 years, 38 have won.  Missouri is the second luckiest state to buy a Powerball ticket.