Cara Abernathy at The Pit Shop in West Alton next to a Powerball screen.Powerball tickets are selling like mad as the pot approaches $1.5 billion.

People are pooling together at businesses to purchase hundreds of dollars of tickets, local convenience stores report. Throughout the River Bend and Edwardsville/Glen Carbon areas, people are sharing their dreams of what they would do if they hit the jackpot.

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Hamed Hashash of the Quik Shop at 2605 College Ave. in Alton, had a suggestion to the winner that some would never ponder: “Why not use the majority of the $1.7 billion or whatever it amounts to, to feed all the world’s poor. I don’t think most humans think like that, which is sad.”

Hamed said Powerball tickets are going fast at his store.

“You can tell a difference,” he said of sales. “We are probably as busy as ever with selling the tickets.”

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One person told Hamed they would buy a new car and another went so far to say they would buy a plane so they could travel anywhere.

In Edwardsville, sales of Powerball tickets at the Circle K at 1089 South State Route 157 near Southern Illinois University campus were going wild.

“It has been a little bit crazy,” Melinda, a manager at the store said. “We have had people within businesses coming in and buying hundreds of dollars of tickets. We have had teenage college students playing, which is very rare. Some people are unsure even what to ask about tickets. Kids are coming over and buying tickets who have never played.”

Cara Abernathy at The Pit Shop, across the Mississippi River in West Alton said Powerball ticket sales are the top item in the store right now. She said with the southbound road of U.S. 67 near the Pitt Shop being closed, ticket sales have not been as strong as they would be.

“Everybody is talking about it,” she said. “One guy said he would buy his hometown if he wins. I thought that was interesting.”

Abernathy hopes with the opening of a lane on U.S. 67 more will come by today and purchase tickets.

The anticipated Powerball drawing is set for 9:59 tonight.

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