Thread: Mega-Millions Lottery $325,000,000 on Friday

The muti-state Mega-Millions Lottery will be at least $325,000,000 on Friday.

http://www.calottery.com/default.htm

I already have my "winning' ticket!

You can play Mega Millions in 12 states:

California, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Texas, Virginia and Washington.

Originally Posted by American-ized

I already have my "winning' ticket!

Yea, but I have the one that will be the winner! :P

OCEANSIDE : Lotto fever heating up North County

RAY HUARD - rhuard@nctimes.com |
Posted: Thursday, August 27, 2009 6:35 pm

Mega Millions madness has hit much of North County, with lottery ticket sales soaring Thursday as people rushed to get a shot at Friday's estimated prize of $325 million, the third largest jackpot ever for the California Lottery.

"It's nuts, people get crazy when it gets up this high," said Orval Morris of Vista, who had stopped in at La Vista Liquors on South Santa Fe Avenue.

"What the heck, it can't hurt," he added, as he dug money out of his pocket for two $1 tickets. "If I win, I'll probably give away $2 million or $3 million, then I'll figure out what to do with the rest."

La Vista Liquors clerk Andre Asmaro said he planned to buy 10 tickets before the prize drawing scheduled for 8 p.m. Friday.

"It's a dream, maybe just a dream," Asmaro said.

Down the street at Slick's Liquor, Malcolm Swan said he was buying his first lottery tickets in six or seven years.

"Who knows, maybe it's my time," Swan said. "If I win, it's going to be a blessing for everybody. I'm going to invest my money then build a homeless shelter for the poor people."

Slick's owner Jeff Kim sold a winning $40 million Super Lotto ticket last year and said lottery players were drawn to his store this week hoping he still has the magic winning touch.

By mid-day Wednesday, Kim said he had sold about 1,600 Mega Millions tickets compared with the 200 to 300 he usually sells. Some players were buying up to 300 tickets at a time, he added.

And with a pot this big, Kim said he was buying 10 tickets himself.

"It only takes one ticket," Kim said. "The guy who won $40 million, he only bought one."

In Escondido, lottery fever was slower to catch on at the 7-Eleven at Juniper Street and Grand Avenue, clerk Kris Stutz said.

"Actually, it's been really quiet. People have been adding tickets to their purchases but not really buying tickets exclusively," Stutz said. "Everyone has been depressed for so long about the recession that they're just like, 'Oh, yeah, that's cool'."

Jorge Lopez of Escondido bought his ticket without even knowing the prize was so big and wasn't really excited when he found out.

If he wins, Lopez said, he doesn't know what he'll do.

"It's too much money," Lopez said.

The Lottery Commission doesn't keep a running tally on ticket sales, but spokesman Alex Traverso said it's no surprise that sales are going crazy.

"This is the time when we get the players who don't usually play go out and buy tickets," Traverso said. "This would be the time that people would buy more than usual. We have a lot of people playing in a pool."

So many people were checking the size of the prize on the lottery Web site on Wednesday that it crashed the system's Web site, Traverso said.

Lottery officials expects as many as 20 million tickets will be sold before 7:45 p.m. ---- the cut-off for Friday's ticket sales.

If no one gets a winning ticket Friday, Traverso said, the prize money will roll over to the Sept. 1 drawing, which will likely have a prize even bigger than the $390 million Mega Millions record, which was split between two winning tickets sold in Georgia and New Jersey.

The biggest Mega Millions prize ever won in California was $315 million in 1995 in Anaheim, with the winnings divided among seven people who pooled their money to buy multiple tickets, Traverso said.

California is one of 12 states in the Mega Millions draw. The others are Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Texas, Virginia and Washington, he said.

In Oceanside on Thursday, Steven Daoud of Coastal Liquors on Coast Highway was bracing for what he expects to be an onslaught of lottery sales Friday.

"It's going to be rough," said Daoud, whose family owns the store. He said he typically sells 20 to 30 lottery tickets a day, but sold 500 to 600 by mid-day Wednesday.

"I quit playing the lottery myself. My ticket is everybody that buys a ticket," said Daoud, who hopes to collect a piece of the $1 million commission that will go to the retailer who sells a pot this big. "If I did play, I'd buy 100 tickets at a time."

Visit www.calottery.com.

Staff writer Morgan Cook contributed to this report.