Ticket Sales Fly as Lottery Jackpot Sets Record

[Emz1Soldier4Life]

AP
NEW YORK (March 6) - Lottery machines cranked out tickets at a dizzying rate Tuesday as the multistate Mega Millions game drew bettors with a jackpot estimated at a record $355 million.



Because of the huge prize and publicity, the 12 participating states agreed to move Tuesday night's drawing from the game's usual home in Atlanta to New York's Times Square.

Although this would be the biggest Mega Millions jackpot, there was a $363 million jackpot in 2000 when it was known as the seven-state Big Game. That prize was split by two winners.

The competing Powerball game -- available in 29 states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands -- has the record for the largest single winner with $314.9 million, on Christmas Day.

The odds of winning the Mega Millions jackpot are about 1 in 176 million.

At the small Fountain News convenience store in downtown Cincinnati, manager Vinay Patel expected to sell 2,500 to 3,000 tickets by the end of the day.

"Some people have bought as many as 200 tickets at a time," Patel said Tuesday morning.

Ron Thomas, who owns a nearby restaurant, stopped in for two tickets, saying: "You can always hope."

"I've never won a big one, but there's always a chance," he said. "I'm like everybody else. I want a new house and a new car, but the first thing I would do if I won is take the day off."

Mega Millions tickets are sold in California, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Texas, Virginia and Washington state.


I GOT MY TICKETS!! WISH ME LUCK!! LOL ;-)

[hotcopper]

I got mine too- bought 'em through an office pool. Good Luck!

[aiden669]

thats a f*** load of $$
hmmm

[Emz1Soldier4Life]

yeah it is! damn! i would do so many great things with money like that, id give some to every member of my fam, buy a house, cars, anything my kids wanted, id donate, invest, put my kids through college etc............................