The public frenzy over a record Powerball lottery jackpot continued to spread Friday as California lottery officials announced that the prize had swelled to $800 million.

The estimated jackpot has grown $300 million since Wednesday's drawing, which failed to produce a winner.

A lump sum payment on an $800 million jackpot would be about $496 million -- before taxes of course.

State lottery officials have been tracking the jackpot’s unprecedented climb since Nov. 4, the last time someone matched all six winning numbers.

“I don’t even know how to describe it. This has never happened before,” California State Lottery spokesman Alex Traverso told The Times on Thursday.

Powerball is played in 44 states and three U.S. territories. No one has hit the jackpot in the last 18 drawings, which occur every Wednesday and Saturday, usually in Florida.

At Bluebird Liquor in Hawthorne, listed as one of the luckiest stores in California, customers were lined up out the door on Thursday hoping their numbers would be the winning combination.

The store has been packed in the last few days, owner James Kim said. Kim estimated about 5,000 people came in Thursday and 3,000 Wednesday in spite of the relentless rain.

The ceilings of the store are covered in cardboard slips of paper with winners' names and prize amounts, and a sign outside proclaims: "Millionaires made here. Are you next?" Entrants have a tradition of rubbing small blue bird figurines in the store for good luck.

The excitement was palpable among those waiting in the line on Thursday night.

“You saw it on the news yesterday, huh? Did you see it?” a woman said, laughing, as she saw another customer walking out of the store with a grin on her face, an orange and white Powerball ticket in her hand.

“Saw it in a dream,” Tracy Paris said, laughing with her.

“C’mon, baby, c’mon, baby!” the woman said as Paris walked past. “Hey! What’s the number?”

“Uh-uh, uh-uh,” Paris said, shaking her head in jest.

Though Paris has dreamed about winning the lottery (she can never remember the numbers when she wakes up, unfortunately), she’s not a gambler, she said. She doesn’t play the lottery regularly, but her husband persuaded her to buy Powerball tickets this time when the jackpot reached epic proportions.

“I truly believe in doing it this way: When you feel it, play it,” she said. “We didn’t wipe out our savings. We just took out a couple of dollars and said ‘OK, let’s go play.’ ”

LINK http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-powerball-record-jackpot-climbs-20160108-story.html

Artist: Astrum Malum Album: Cheval Glass Chamber Genre: Neoclassical Black Metal Country: Finland Released: 2015 Quality: mp3, CBR 320 kbps Tracklist: 1. Part I 02:00 2. Part II 02:58 3. Part III 03:16 4. Part IV 02:16 5. Part V 02:42 6. Part VI 02:30 7. Part VII 03:42 8. … Tracklist and download links →

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