No Mega Millions Jackpot, But lottery Sales Records in MA

Although no one can have a winning ticket on Friday a record $ 640 million Mega Millions drawing, a surplus of ticket issued for the discovery of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, however.

More than 39 million tickets were sold in the state, as the jackpot started on 24 January, the lottery said, creating a net profit of $ 16.4 million State General Fund. The Fund provides unlimited budgets of cities and villages.

Three states, Illinois, Kansas, Maryland, and each produced a winning ticket that matches all six numbers.

Five residents of Massachusetts adapted all but one of the numbers, the chance that there are $ 250,000 a ticket. The five tickets were sold at 7-Eleven, 63 Mammoth Road, Lowell, a variety of Handy, Watertown, Taye convenience East Bridgewater, Tedeschi Food Shop, 90 Washington Street, Somerville, and West Street Mobil, read on.

Beth Bresnahan, a representative of the lottery in Massachusetts, says she hopes that the excitement surrounding the huge jackpot will fuel future sales.

"I think that the" mega-mania "is certainly open the eyes of people who do not normally play the lottery could take a chance on another jackpot," said Bresnahan.

Fighting broke records for the tickets of many lottery officials said. Record up to 12 years in one day sale of Mega Millions, $ 11,3 million, was broken on Friday, when the residents bought $ 13.2 million tickets. At peak times, retailers sold nearly $ 22,000 in tickets every minute.

All that leads to the "exceptional year" for the financial lottery, Bresnahan said. Annual sales to date, up to 6 percent in 2011, she said.

Strong sales and good for the municipalities, who may use their portion of lottery money for schools, road repair fund and other projects. Retailers also see the benefits of foot traffic in their stores, as well as a small commission on each ticket and 1 percent premium on winning tickets.

Despite the absence of the jackpot winner, Bresnahan said the state is not too late. In August last year, 47-year-old man by the name of Dorchester unemployed Candido Oliveira won a jackpot of $ 32 million. In 2004 Lowell former janitor Geraldine Williams won a then-record 294 million U.S. dollars. Since 1996, the government released 13 winners of the jackpot, which raised a total of $ 790 million.

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Mega Million Jackpot hit a World Record $ 640 Million

The already record-setting Mega Millions jackpot soared to $640 million this morning, according to the Mega Millions website.

At 11:49 a.m. the New Jersey Lottery commission's official Twitter page announced, "Tonight's RECORD BREAKING Mega Millions jackpot is now $640 MILLION!" The cash option for the jackpot — the largest ever — is $462 million.

The drawing for the largest jackpot in U.S. lottery history will be held 11 p.m. tonight at WSB-TV in Atlanta.

The odds of one ticket matching five numbers and the Mega Ball and winning the $640 million prize are 1 in 175,711,536.

In Tuesday night's drawing, 47 tickets across the nation — including two in New Jersey — matched five regular numbers but not the Mega ball, according to the Mega Millions website. Each of those tickets is worth $250,000.

The numbers were: 9, 19, 34, 44 and 51. The Mega Ball selected was 24, and the "Megaplier" was 3 for lottery players who plucked down an extra dollar for a shot at bigger prizes.

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Mega Millions Jackpot Grows to an Estimated $640 Million

Lottery ticket lines swelled Friday as players drawn by a record $640 million Mega Millions jackpot cast aside concerns about odds to take a chance at becoming an overnight millionaire.

From Arizona, where a café worker reported selling $2,600 worth of tickets to one buyer, to Wisconsin, where a retired soldier doubled his regular weekly ticket spending to $55, people have been willing to test their luck for a shot at instantaneous wealth.

"I feel like a fool throwing that kind of money away," said Jesse Carter, whose two tickets purchased Friday at a Milwaukee grocery store brought his spending to $55 for the drawing. "But it's a chance you take in life, with anything you do."

With a jackpot so large, someone theoretically could buy up every possible number combination, thereby guaranteeing a winning ticket — but doing so would mean putting up millions of dollars on the front end.

Then there's logistics. First, if it takes five seconds to fill out each card, you'd need almost 28 years just to mark the bubbles on the game tickets. You'd also use up the national supply of special lottery paper and lottery-machine printing ink well before all your tickets could be printed out.

A jackpot this large also means a greater chance of multiple winners. And if you have to share the jackpot with even one other winner, you'll be down tens of millions of dollars.

Such uncertainty has been little deterrence to players converging on convenience stores in 42 states and Washington, D.C., where Mega Millions tickets are sold.

Many in Indiana were further encouraged by the promise of freebies: Hoosier Lottery officials were giving away one free Mega Millions ticket to each of the first 540 players at several outlets around the state Friday.

In Indianapolis, college student Chris Stewart said he showed up at the lottery's headquarters at 6:30 a.m., two hours before doors opened, to be first in a line of about 60 people who wanted to claim a free ticket.

"I've never seen a jackpot like this before," said Stewart, who bought five additional tickets for the drawing. "If I won — I mean wow! I just don't know what I'd do. I'd really have to think what I could do with it."

Mike Catalano, chairman of the mathematics department at Dakota Wesleyan University in Mitchell, S.D., concedes the math is clear: The more tickets you buy, the better chances you have of winning. Better long-shot chances.

"You are about 50 times as likely to get struck by lightning as to win the lottery, based on the 90 people a year getting struck by lightning," Catalano said. "Of course, if you buy 50 tickets, you've equalized your chances of winning the jackpot with getting struck by lightning."

Based on other U.S. averages, you're about 8,000 times more likely to be murdered than to win the lottery, and about 20,000 times more likely to die in a car crash than hit the lucky numbers, Catalano said.

"You might get some psychological enjoyment from playing the lottery, but from a financial standpoint ... you'd be much better off going to Las Vegas and playing blackjack or the slot machines," he said.

For David Kramer, a lawyer in Lincoln, Neb., buying his Mega Millions ticket Thursday wasn't about "the realistic opportunity to win."

"It's the fact that for three days, the daydreaming time about what I would do if I won is great entertainment and, frankly, a very nice release from a normal day," he said.

Everett Eahmer, 80, of St. Paul, Minn., said he's been playing the lottery "since the beginning."

"If I win, the first thing I'm going to do is buy a (Tim) Tebow football shirt, and I'm going to do the Tebow pose," said Eahmer, who bought five tickets Thursday. "I'm with him in honoring a higher power."

Lottery officials are happy to have Friday's record Mega Millions jackpot fueling ticket sales, but even they caution against spending large amounts per person.

"When people ask me, I just tell them that the odds of a lottery game make it a game of fate," said Chuck Strutt, executive director of the Urbandale, Iowa-based Multi-State Lottery Association that oversees the Mega Millions, Powerball and other lotteries. "Just buy a ticket, sit back and see if fate points a finger at you for that day."

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Mega Millions Jackpot Increases to $640 Million

Tonight, the Mega Millions lottery jackpot reached an estimated $ 640 million, depending on the Massachusetts State Lottery.

Jackpot has broken the record Thursday's biggest lottery prize in history.

The new estimate, which was $ 100 million higher than on Thursday, it was announced this morning after officials of the States parties talking to each other and to assess the volume of ticket sales. Paul Sternburg, executive director of the Massachusetts lottery, said that estimate was conservative and could grow even more after all of that ticket sales are now considered.

Over the past three days, nearly 9 million tickets were sold in Massachusetts. At noon, a total of the day was about 3 million people. But the busiest time was scheduled for 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm, Sternburg said. "Sales in the air," he said.

He estimates that sales of the day may eventually total $ 10 to $ 15 million. Tickets for the game of $ 1.

If the winner has not been established today, the jackpot will grow to nearly 975 million US dollars. He said that it would be a problem for the lottery board agencies in other states that do not have enough digits to display the jackpot when he moved to one billion dollars.

He said that he would be surprised if the winner does not today, but "everything is possible."

Winner of drawing today, if any, may elect to receive a lump sum $ 462 million. Otherwise, the price will be paid within 26 years.

Odds of winning the lottery, which is offered in 42 states and the Virgin Islands and the District of Columbia, are 1 in 176 million dollars.

The draw will take place today at 11:24 pm

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