Monday night, somebody in America could wake up Tuesday morning worth $180 million. The Powerball jackpot keeps climbing after nine straight drawings without a grand prize winner, and tickets are moving fast at gas stations and corner stores from Solvay to Fayetteville.
The last person to hit the big one was an Arkansas player who cashed in $250.8 million on March 2. Since then? Nine consecutive rollovers. The pot for Monday’s 10:59 p.m. drawing now sits at an estimated $180 million, with a cash option likely north of $86 million.
Before you grab a quick pick at Byrne Dairy on your lunch break, here’s the thing worth knowing: Central New York has a genuinely wild history with the lottery. This region punches way above its weight when it comes to big winners, unlikely stories, and the kind of luck that makes you wonder if there’s something in the water.
This story came from public records we pulled ourselves
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Saturday Night’s Numbers
The Saturday, March 28 Powerball drawing produced the following:
White balls: 11, 42, 43, 59, 61
Powerball: 25
Power Play: 4x
No jackpot winner. No million-dollar second-prize winner in New York. The next drawing is Monday, March 30, 2026 at 10:59 PM ET, with an estimated jackpot of $180 million.
CNY’s Remarkable Run of Lottery Luck
If you think lightning doesn’t strike twice around here, you haven’t been paying attention.
The Silverbush family of Syracuse walked into the state lottery office in 2009 clutching a Mega Millions ticket worth $35 million. They’d bought it at Chase’s Cigar Store on James Street in Eastwood, using what the family described only as a “secret system.” Their first purchase with the winnings? A fireproof safe. Smart family.
Patrick Clement, also of Syracuse, nearly threw his ticket in the trash that same year. The ticket, a Million Dollar a Year For Life winner worth a minimum of $20 million, came from the Byrne Dairy on West Genesee Street. Clement showed up at the lottery office to claim his prize on the exact same day as the Silverbush family. Two Syracuse mega-winners in the same room, on the same morning. You can’t make this stuff up.
In fact, 2009 was CNY’s golden year. Five separate Onondaga County residents won $1 million or more. The odds of that happening in a single county of roughly 470,000 people are, to put it technically, absurd.
Larry Hartig of Syracuse is the region’s most recent jackpot story, and it’s a good one. Hartig had actually quit playing the lottery because he figured he was “just unlucky.” Then, on a whim in 2025, he grabbed a ticket at Polge Wine & Liquors on West Seneca Turnpike. That whim was worth $17 million. Polge’s, by the way, had already sold a $42,000 Take 5 winner before Hartig’s jackpot, making it one of CNY’s certified lucky spots.
Then there’s the mystery. “The Shadowknight LLC”, that’s the name on the claim form for a $20 million Mega Millions prize from a ticket purchased at Church Wine and Liquor on Kirkville Road in East Syracuse. Who’s behind the LLC? Nobody knows. East Syracuse loves a good whodunit.
And for the SU faithful: David Signor, a former Syracuse University lacrosse national champion, scratched off a $14 million prize on a ticket from the Boonville Sunoco. From Carrier Dome glory to scratch-off glory, a true Central New York arc.
CNY’s Biggest Lottery Wins
| Winner | Prize | Year | Retailer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Silverbush Family | $35M | 2009 | Chase’s Cigar Store, Eastwood |
| “Shadowknight LLC” | $20M | n/a | Church Wine & Liquor, E. Syracuse |
| Patrick Clement | $20M+ | 2009 | Byrne Dairy, W. Genesee St. |
| Larry Hartig | $17M | 2025 | Polge Wine & Liquors, W. Seneca Tpk. |
| David Signor | $14M | n/a | Boonville Sunoco |
By the Numbers: Your Odds, Your Money, Your Dome
Let’s talk about what you’re actually up against when you hand over two dollars for a Powerball ticket.
The odds of matching all five white balls plus the Powerball sit at 1 in 292,201,338. To put that in terms a Syracuse person can feel: you’d need to fill the JMA Wireless Dome 5,933 times, that’s every seat, all 49,250 of them, just to have enough people for each one to hold a unique ticket covering those odds. Picture the Dome on game day, then multiply it by six thousand.
Or think of it this way: every single resident of Onondaga County would need to buy 620 tickets apiece just to get the collective odds to a coin flip.
The odds of winning any prize at all are much friendlier, 1 in 24.87. And a $1 million second prize comes in at 1 in 11,688,054. Long? Sure. But Patrick Clement beat those odds at a Byrne Dairy, so it happens.
Central New Yorkers are enthusiastic players, too. New Yorkers spend between $456 and $481 per person annually on lottery tickets, roughly 42 to 50 percent more than the $320 national average. In Onondaga County specifically, estimated lottery sales hit approximately $389 million per year, which works out to about $826 per person, nearly double the statewide average.
There’s a catch, though. New York returns only about 55 cents of every lottery dollar back to players in winnings, placing it in the bottom eight states nationally for payout rate. The house edge here is steeper than most.
Where Your Lottery Dollar Actually Goes
Here’s the part that makes the math a little easier to stomach. The New York Lottery exists, first and foremost, to fund public education. And it delivers. Since its founding in 1967, the NY Lottery has generated $78.7 billion for schools statewide.
Locally, the numbers are significant. In fiscal year 2024-25, Onondaga County schools received $129.76 million in lottery education aid. That’s real money going into classrooms, teacher salaries, and school infrastructure across the county.
Where Your Lottery Dollar Goes, Onondaga County Education Aid (FY 2024-25)
| Recipient | Lottery Aid |
|---|---|
| Syracuse City School District | $42.46M |
| All Other Onondaga County Districts | $87.30M |
| Onondaga County Total | $129.76M |
Since 1967, the NY Lottery has generated $78.7 billion for education statewide.
Fun historical footnote: when New York launched its very first lottery in 1967, 20 of the winning tickets came from Onondaga County. A Syracuse University student named Charles Holt won the $100,000 grand prize, the biggest individual payout in that inaugural drawing. CNY’s been in the game since Day One.
CNY’s Lucky Retailers
Superstition or statistics, some stores just keep producing winners. If you’re the type who believes in lucky spots, here are the CNY retailers with proven track records:
- Polge Wine & Liquors (West Seneca Turnpike, Syracuse), $17M jackpot winner AND a $42K Take 5 winner
- Chase’s Cigar Store (James Street, Eastwood), $35M Mega Millions winner
- Byrne Dairy (West Genesee Street, Syracuse), $20M+ Year For Life winner
- Church Wine and Liquor (Kirkville Road, East Syracuse), $20M Mega Millions winner
- Boonville Sunoco (Boonville), $14M scratch-off winner
Do the walls of these stores radiate some kind of lucky energy? Almost certainly not. But Larry Hartig quit playing the lottery, walked into Polge’s on a whim, and left $17 million richer. So who are we to say.
Monday Night
The next Powerball drawing is Monday, March 30 at 10:59 PM ET. Tickets are $2 each, or $3 with the Power Play multiplier. Sales cut off shortly before the drawing in New York, don’t be the person sprinting into Stewart’s at 10:58.
The jackpot sits at an estimated $180 million. The odds haven’t changed. But neither has this: somewhere in Central New York, somebody always seems to beat them.
Good luck out there, Syracuse.
