Mike Watson of Poland plays Powerball Thursday afternoon at Express Mart Lottery Snacks Cigarettes on Tiffany Street off Market Street in Boardman.

BOARDMAN — Express Mart on Tiffany Boulevard has a wall that boasts a number of winning lottery tickets sold at the store, mostly for Ohio lottery games. It has yet to add a Powerball winner to its ranks.

Mike Watson of Poland is hoping to change that as he stopped into the store Friday afternoon to, yet again, buy $60 worth of Powerball tickets for tonight’s record-breaking $1.6 billion-and-growing jackpot.

He was buying for a dozen golf buddies who had been trying their luck every draw since the pot grew to a noticeably large amount.

Watson had an idea of what he’d do if he won: “I would make sure some people that are in need are taken care of — and my family,” Watson said. “And I’d be retired.”

Rashid Badou, who manages Express Mart, said the store had been making Powerball sales Friday, but he expects today to see “the biggest sale in history.”

Meanwhile in Warren, just before 6:30 p.m. Friday, more than half a dozen people stood around the registers at Garfield Convenient Food Mart, to try their luck at winning the Powerball lottery.

All would be winners, or so they they said with smirks and a bit of genuine hope.

In the 12-and-a-half hours since opening at 6 a.m. on Friday, the Warren corner store had made 115 Powerball sales worth $1,049, said assistant manager Makenna Placer — and she expected today to be at least as busy. She said some people had put hundreds of dollars into tickets.

Rob Sherman of Warren already had five tickets but had come to purchase “five or 10 more.” He said he’s a regular lottery player, but was getting more tickets because of the big prize.

When asked why he plays, Sherman said, “why not?”

Donta Murray of Warren, who also “usually” plays the lottery, bought two Powerball tickets.

“I don’t know what I’d do if I won the money,” Murray admitted, adding he would take care of his family first.

A drawing will be held tonight for the Powerball prize, which hasn’t been won in more than three months. That string of 39 consecutive drawings without a winner is a reflection of the tough odds of winning a jackpot, at 1 in 292.2 million.

The advertised jackpot is the prize for a winner who chooses an annuity, paid annually over 29 years. Almost all winners instead opt for the cash prize, which for tonight’s drawing would be an estimated $782.4 million.

The new jackpot tops the previous record prize of $1.586 billion won in 2016 by three Powerball players in California, Florida and Tennessee.

Powerball is played in 45 states, as well as Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

avugrincic@tribtoday.com