LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – With Saturday’s Arkansas Scholarship Lottery Powerball drawing set at $700 million, this is a good time for Natural State residents to dream big-money dreams.
But before the fun, a wealthy person should be practical.
According to lottery officials, a $700 million jackpot has a cash option of $375.7 million. The cash option works well if a winner wants to blow all the money at once.
A tub of Yarnell Ice Cream, produced in Searcy, is $5.68 at Walmart. If an Arkansan is the big winner, they could buy more than 66 million tubs. With the latest population of Arkansas set at 3.026 million, that’s enough ice cream for every man, woman and child in the Natural State to have 21 large tubs of frozen goodness.
If ice cream is a little too rich for the winner’s blood, they can always go with coffee. Arkansas-based Westrock Coffee can provide a 12-ounce bag of coffee for $9. Putting $375.7 million on the counter will send a lottery winner out the door with 41.7 million bags of coffee, offering a lot of morning wake-ups.
The Super Bowl is coming up next weekend, and chicken wings are never a bad idea for entertaining football fans. Shoppers can get a 40-ounce bag of Tyson chicken wings at Kroger for $8.99, meaning the winners’ tailgate party could stock up with around 54.3 million pounds of drumettes and flats.
Our winner can deliver the food in a stretch limousine, appropriate for a millionaire.
The stretch limousine was invented in Arkansas by three men in Fort Smith who had been building horse-drawn carriages. Armbruster-Stageway continues to build limos and hearses in Fort Smith, but prices are not advertised, a buyer will have to call for a quote.
If traveling on the waves is more your speed, Ranger Boats, built in the north Arkansas town of Flippin, will let you hit the water in style. A top-of-the-line luxury pontoon boat will run you $112, 995, meaning the winner could cast off with an armada of more than 3,300 boats.
And while the focus is on transportation, Dassault Falcon has a Little Rock base for its French-made business jets. While a business jet can quickly become an expensive hobby, a top-of-the-line Falcon 8X trans-continental jet will run about $62.5 million, according to one source, so our winner will still have money in their pocket after they buy one (or two).
Before planning an ice-cream-and-chicken-with-coffee-party jet ride, fair to point out that the odds of winning the jackpot are one in 292.2 million.
Dreaming, however, is free.