DENVER -- Coloradans bought 90,000 Powerball tickets in the first five hours they were on sale in the state Thursday, even though a judge could block state participation in the game Friday.
The $1 tickets went on sale at 2,900 stores statewide at 4:30 a.m. Thursday for the Saturday drawing, which has a $66 million jackpot.
A lottery spokesman said that someone in Walsenburg, Colo., bought the first powerball ticket Thursday at 4:30 a.m.
Powerball tickets were selling as fast as 300 per minute, compared with an average of 60 per minute for Colorado Lottery tickets.
Powerball, a more lucrative game than Lotto, offers players a chance at prizes and big jackpots, but the odds of winning a single jackpot are one in 80.1 million.
"People in Colorado have never played for a jackpot of this magnitude ever," Colorado State Lottery spokesman Todd Grego said.
Although this new lottery leaves some lukewarm, there are plenty of people who are itching to play.
"There's always that chance," one person told 7NEWS. "There's always that one chance you might hit the big one, you never know."
A hearing was scheduled in Pueblo County District Court Friday morning on a lawsuit filed by state Sen. Doug Lamborn, R-Colorado Springs, claiming the game is unconstitutional.
Lamborn didn't immediately return telephone calls Thursday.
The judge could allow the game to proceed, ban Powerball with the exception of Saturday's drawing or halt the game immediately and decide what to do with tickets already sold, Colorado Lottery spokesman Todd Greco said.
"I've had people asking for three or four days now, 'When can I buy Powerball?"' said Pamela Pruneda, manager of a Total gas station in Denver.
Pruneda said that the lawsuit didn't stop her from buying five tickets Thursday morning but said that others might be waiting.
"People don't want to put the money in until they know they're going to get some money out of it," Pruneda said.
No one won Wednesday's Powerball drawing, so the state's first Powerball drawing on Saturday will be worth $66 million.
The game has a $10 million minimum jackpot for matching five numbers plus the "Powerball" number. Players choose five white balls from a pool of 49 and a red ball from a pool of 42.
Voters in November narrowly approved a referendum allowing Colorado to participate in a multistate lottery. Lottery officials chose Powerball, which is offered in 20 other states and the District of Columbia.
Proceeds from the sale of Colorado Powerball tickets will go to the Lottery's current proceeds recipients: the Conservation Trust Fund, State Parks, and Great Outdoors Colorado Trust Fund.
If the GOCO fund exceeds its cap of about $44 million, spillover will be directed to public schools to address health and safety.
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