After the Powerball drawing on Saturday failed to produce a winner, the numbers — and ticket sales — just keep getting bigger.

As of Tuesday, the record-setting jackpot, which has been rolling over since the game’s Nov. 4 drawing, was set at $1.5 billion. It continues to attract first-time players to lottery outlets like CoGo’s on Butler’s North Main Street, where manager Robbie Boosel said employees are finding out they have a new job: breaking in new Powerball players.

“We have people ask us all sorts of questions: How to play it; what’s the power play mean? It can make it tough to get things done,” he said.

Boosel said the store is enjoying the spike in player interest, though.

“We’ve been doing pretty much four to five thousand dollars more than we usually do — just in Powerball tickets,” he said.

The excitement is so contagious that CoGo’s cashier Katie Lee said her 5-year-old son is fascinated with the jackpot and routinely asks her to buy tickets. Lee said she’s planning to take the boy on a tour of area lottery retailers and let him handle the transactions to buy a few tickets.

“I think he’s going to have a great time,” she said.

On Evans City Road in Renfrew, B & E Mini-Mart cashier Barb Menchyk said she doesn’t expect the lines for Powerball to let up anytime soon.

“This past Saturday it was really, really intense, and I expect the same thing today and Wednesday,” Menchyk said. “We’re doing about triple what we normally do.”

Menchyk said most players continue to use the game’s “quick picks” option, which allows a computer to pick their numbers for them — though some first-timers think they’ll get lucky by making picks for themselves.

Menchyk said she understands why people are drawn to the game; the prospect of winning is almost too good to pass up.

“I’m really not a player, but when it’s big like this my husband and I do play it,” Menchyk said. “Why not?”

The larger-than-life jackpot is even attracting former lottery winners like Mary McCullough of Zelienople, who said she won a Cash 5 jackpot 18 years ago and split about $420,000 with two other people.

“It’s the greatest feeling in the world,” McCullough said. She’s purchased about $15 worth of Powerball tickets so far.

“I have to go do this again. I have to at this price,” McCullough said.

Powerball tickets sell for $2, with the option to spend an extra dollar and get the game’s “power play” option, which multiplies lower-tier cash prizes.

Employees at Sunoco on Main Street in Zelienople, where McCullough was purchasing her tickets, said excitement like hers is what is spurring ticket sales. Between Friday and Monday the store had sold 645 Powerball tickets, with more and more first-time players stopping by.

“That’s the kind of people you get more and more of,” said employee Kurt Auchter.

Fascination with the staggering jackpot has caused a spike in ticket sales that has retailers reeling. Between Jan. 6 and Saturday’s drawing, more than $900 million in Powerball tickets were sold nationwide, according to The Multi-State Lottery Association, which administers the game.

Gary Miller, communications director for the Pennsylvania Lottery, said the state had sold $20 million worth of Powerball tickets for Wednesday night’s drawing, and has had more than $113.5 million in ticket sales since November.

Miller said that equates to more than $45 million for senior support programs funded by the Pennsylvania Lottery, which has been fielding a barrage of media inquiries since news broke last week about the record-setting jackpot.

“It’s an exciting time and an unusually busy period,” Miller said. “Employees are excited for players, and excited for older Pennsylvanians because of the programs funded by these sales.”

There hasn’t been a jackpot winner yet, but Pennsylvania residents have had their fair share of lucky picks when it comes to Powerball during the past week.

One ticket purchased in Pennsylvania matched five numbers to Saturday’s drawing, becoming one of 25 tickets that won $1 million each. Seven tickets sold in Pennsylvania matched four numbers, winning players $150,000 each.

The odds of matching all six numbers are one in 292.2 million. Pennsylvania leads the nation with 16 winning Powerball tickets sold. Powerball is sold in 44 states, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The last time a Pennsylvania resident won the Powerball jackpot was in December of 2012, when Roger Custer of Levittown, Bucks County, claimed a $33.1 million payout.

The largest Powerball payout ever awarded by Pennsylvania came in May of 2004, when a New Jersey couple claimed a $110.2 million cash prize. The state’s largest Powerball group win came in April 2012, when 48 transit workers in the Philadelphia area claimed a $107.5 million cash jackpot.

That’s nothing compared to the game’s current take-home. If the jackpot remains at $1.5 billion, the lump sum payout would be about $930 million. That prize would be cut down to about $697.5 million after the 25 percent federal tax, but wouldn’t shrink any further, so long as the winner is a Pennsylvania resident. Pennsylvania is one of 10 states that doesn’t tax lottery winnings.