At South Jersey store, Mega Millions players hope luck strikes twice
With his freshly printed lottery ticket in hand, Mike DePietro hoped he had the winning numbers to print $1 billion.
"It'd be a beautiful present," he said. "I'm hoping and praying."
A steady stream of customers filed in and out of the Lindenwold Preet Food Mart in Camden County, New Jersey, on Christmas Eve to snag their last-minute lottery tickets before Tuesday night's Mega Millions drawing. The jackpot has ballooned to $1 billion.
The store sold a single $222.6 million jackpot-winning ticket in June that matched every number drawn in the Powerball. While you have a better chance of being struck by lightning, regulars say they hope lightning strikes twice.
"Oh man, this is the lucky store right here," said another customer. "We hit last time, we're going to hit again."
Cheriese Majatte hadn't planned to buy a ticket when she stopped in Tuesday evening because her husband had already bought theirs earlier. But she said she couldn't pass up the chance to increase her odds.
"This is the normal spot that my husband comes to play his numbers, so I was like, 'You know what, I'm here, let me just buy some more tickets,'" she said.
The Mega Millions jackpot has been rolling since it was last won at $810 million in Texas on Sept. 10. No ticket matched all six numbers during the last drawing on Friday night.
It's been an unlucky year for lottery players with just three Mega Millions jackpot wins, the fewest wins in a single year since the game began in 2002.
If someone wins on Tuesday, it would mark just the second Mega Millions jackpot win on Christmas Eve.
The odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 302,575,350. Winning numbers will be announced in the drawing at 11 p.m. ET.