$1.5B US Powerball frenzy drawing Canadians to United States

Even though the Canadian dollar is hovering around 70 cents US, there is one thing drawing people living in Windsor and Essex County across the Detroit River into the United States.

It's the $1.5-billion US Powerball lottery draw. The prize would be more than $2 billion Cdn if the exchange rate stays where it's at.  

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"We've seen record sales," said Ali Dakroub, a manager at a gas station in Dearborn, Mich., which is about a 20-minute drive from the Ambassador Bridge.

"We've had a few Canadians come through and try their luck," he said. "People who have never played before are playing, both from Canada and the United States."

Canadians are allowed to legally play and win the Powerball lottery, but they have to purchase their tickets in the United States. 

The odds of winning the top jackpot are 1 in 292.2 million. 

Dakroub estimates about three times as many people are buying tickets for this Powerball draw than usual. Things got especially busy after a winner did not come forward in a draw for $900 million US last week, he said.  

The increased business isn't completely good news for Dakroub though. He said people coming in to buy a lottery ticket aren't spending money on anything else.

"For the lottery it's great," Dakroub said. "But it does affect our sales because [customers'] leftover money is going to the lottery. We're selling less gas, [seeing] less sales in store and more sales in the lottery."

The lottery is being drawn at 10:59 p.m. ET Wednesday.