Huge Powerball jackpot drawing tonight

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (WTNH) -- It's the common question that's asked when lottery jackpots get sky high -- what would you do with all the money? Tonight's Powerball jackpot is at $320 million, and could go higher.

"Everybody has the dream," said Gerry Katz of Katz's Shell Food Mart in New Haven.

And, dream they do, drawn out of the woodwork by a dizzy number. How much of a jackpot does it take for someone to say, 'yeah, I'm going to go buy a ticket'? For Michelle Riley of East Haven, the answer is "anything over $100 million."

$320 million takes care of that easily, even before taxes. That's the Powerball jackpot up for grabs tonight. And everyone has a strategy, even if some of them are predictable.

"I picked a birthday as the Powerball," Joe Cifferelli of Clinton said. "The last time it was 18, which is my Dad's birthday, and it came out 18."

"Playing the dates of their child's birthdays, their birthdays," Gerry Katz said. "Most of the people play quick picks."

Even after taxes, it's a payout plenty more than enough for any sensible average Joe. Cifferelli says he would "pay down some of my debt."

And enough to make any lottery vendor hope for a win-win. "It would be nice to sell the big winner because the store owner, or the store, gets a million dollars," Katz said.

Now it sounds simple enough, you pick five numbers out of 59 plus a Powerball, but those odds are 175 million-plus against one.

The numbers will be drawn tonight just before 11:00 p.m. eastern time. We'll post them here and have them on the air on News 8 at 11.