LEWISTON – Tim Frary stood in line for an hour and 15 minutes to be first to buy a Powerball ticket at Victor News.

Cashier Stephanie Brown beat him – she sold the first one to herself at noon – but he was a close second, walking away with three tickets and multimillion-dollar dreams.

The state counted $52,900 in first-hour sales as Maine became the 27th state to join the Powerball lottery on Friday.

The first day went smoothly, according to Pam Coutts, director of the Bureau of Alcoholic Beverages and Lottery Operations.

Maine anticipates Powerball sales of $30 million this first year, and even with a hit to Tri-State Megabucks, hopes to pocket $9 million more in annual lottery revenue.

Megabucks already brings in $8 million.

The big difference in the two pots was a reason Frary stood in line.

“Megabucks was fine, but the jackpot wasn’t worth playing,” he said. He looked through winning lottery numbers from the past few weeks to pick his Powerball combos.

The two games are played a little differently from each other. In Powerball, players choose five numbers in the range of 1 to 53 and one number from 1 to 42 (that’s the powerball.)

Winning starts by picking the correct powerball number – that’s $3 by itself – and then by matching the rest of the numbers.

For an additional $1 per ticket, non-jackpot prizes can be increased up to fivefold, which is dictated by the drawing of a seventh ball.

It’s a little tricky.

Brown found herself explaining the rules lots of times on Friday.

“I never actually understood it until it came to Maine,” she said.

By the time noon rolled around, about 12 people stood in line anxiously waiting to buy a ticket, and business was brisk for 10 minutes straight.

Bob Gosselin of Auburn thought he’d buy a house with a swimming pool with any winnings, so he could have friends and family over all the time.

Anne Cyr of Auburn said she’d “pay off my house, pay off my husband’s boat – and he would sell that and buy a bigger boat.”

Victor News is one of the biggest lottery agents in the state, Brown said. It’s considered sort of lucky. Three winning Megabucks tickets have been sold here, the last in 1995 for $4 million.

“I haven’t been here for any of them, I figure it’s due,” she said.

The state will release information early in the week on sales right up to Saturday night’s 10:59 p.m. drawing. Local channels are expected to feature the winning numbers on the 11 o’clock news.