No winner in Powerball

DES MOINES, Iowa (CNN) -- There was no winning ticket sold for Wednesday night's $193.5 million Powerball jackpot, setting the stage for a potential $280 million grand prize this weekend, a lottery spokeswoman said.

The winning combination, drawn at 11 p.m. EDT, were 2, 36, 39, 30, 28 and powerball number 10.

Each of the many millions of tickets sold had a 80 million to 1 chance of making someone a multi-millionaire.

Powerball lottery fever spread across the country Wednesday as players snatched up tickets in the hope of winning Wednesday night's jackpot. Tickets sold at a rate of 53,000 a minute, or 3.2 million per hour, in 21 states and the District of Columbia.

VIDEO Watch the Powerball lottery drawing (August 22) Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media) CNN's Skip Loescher experiences Powerball fever with ticket buyers (August 22) Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)   MORE STORIES CNNfn.com: A look at some alternate investment options for regular lottery players     RESOURCES • In Focus: Financial planner: If you win Powerball   • CNN Access: Powerball expert: 'I'd rather play blackjack'     Powerball odds: If you buy 50 tickets a week, the odds are that you would win once every 30,000 years. If every Canadian's name were in a hat, you would be 2 1/2 times more likely to pick a particular name than to win the lottery. Biggest-ever jackpots: $363 million: 2 tickets on May 9, 2000; Big Game $295.7 million: 1 ticket on July 29, 1998; Powerball $197 million: 1 ticket on April 6, 1999; Big Game $194.5 million: 1 ticket on May 20, 1998; Powerball $151 million: 1 ticket on June 30, 1999; Powerball $150.2 million: 3 tickets on March 4, 2000; Powerball $130.6 million: 1 ticket on Nov. 29, 2000; Powerball $130 million: 2 tickets on Nov. 4, 2000; Millennium Millions

"That's a lot of tickets," said Powerball spokesman Joe Mahoney.

In Moorhead, Minnesota, just across the border from Fargo, North Dakota, hundreds of people packed the M&H Convenience Store, the largest Powerball seller in the state ever since a lucky resident won about $48 million on a ticket bought there four years ago.

"Everybody's dreaming today," manager Marcie Felix said. "I've got four extra employees on, I've got lines out the door and they've been non-stop since yesterday."

She said most people were buying 10 to 20 tickets at a time, with businesses purchasing as many as 200 to 300 tickets apiece. She said the fact the store had a previous winner helps business.

Minnesota does not follow the practice of some states in which the retailer that sells the winning ticket gets a sum equal to a percentage of the jackpot.

"In Minnesota, you don't get anything. You get a plaque," said Felix.

At a nearby convenience store, Jerry's One Stop, business was much slower: It does not sell Powerball tickets. Clerk Mary Kava said she and her sister were sitting around talking about what they would do if they win.

"I said, 'Bring it on. Alter my life. I'll take the $200 million,'" she said. She said the Moorhead resident who won the millions a few years back eventually had to leave the town of 34,000 because of gawkers.

In Maysville, Kentucky, at the Ohio border, Citgo manager Nancy Bess said the lines were about three times the normal size.

"It's crazy," she said.

The story was the same in Caney, Kansas, where Bill Owens bought a few tickets and was keeping his fingers crossed.

"Anything's possible in that Powerball business. I usually do the scratchers and I've been pretty lucky on them," Owens said.

In Missouri, about 500 lottery sales machines were out of service because a telephone line was cut. The outage affected all machines in Springfield and scattered locations elsewhere, Missouri Lottery spokeswoman Susan Goedde told the Associated Press.

The largest state lottery jackpot ever was $363 million -- a Big Game prize won by two ticket holders on May 9, 2000. The largest Powerball payout was $295.7 million, won by a single ticket holder on July 29, 1998.

Powerball tickets are sold in Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Delaware, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Wisconsin, and West Virginia.

Colorado is the newest state in the game, having just joined a few drawings ago.