Raising Cane's CEO says he bought 50,000 Mega Millions tickets to share with employees
Raising Cane's CEO Todd Graves said that he has purchased 50,000 Mega Millions tickets and promised to share the $810 million prize with all of his employees if one of the tickets hits the jackpot.
Graves showed off the purchase with a video of multiple Mega Millions tickets being printed along with the caption, "POV: You just bought 50,000 Mega Millions tickets for your Raising Cane's crewmembers."
"Buying 50,000 lottery tickets is harder than you think! Hoping to share the winning jackpot with our 50,000 @RaisingCanes Crew." Graves wrote on Twitter.
Buying 50,000 lottery tickets is harder than you think! 😉 Hoping to share the winning jackpot with our 50,000 @RaisingCanes Crew. pic.twitter.com/hLlajBJwlH
— Todd Graves (@ToddGraves) July 25, 2022
Should one the tickets win the jackpot, every employee of the fast food chain could walk away with thousands of dollars, Raising Cane's said in a news release provided to CBS News.
"As soon as we heard how big this jackpot prize is, we couldn't miss out on the chance to win the Mega Millions jackpot and share it with our crew, who always stand together," Graves said in a statement.
"None of what we do at Cane's would be possible without our crew, which is why we are always looking for ways to bring them a little extra fun, and if we're lucky, a surprise on Wednesday morning," Graves added.
At a cost of $2 per ticket, the purchase would have set Graves back $100,000.
On Monday the Mega Millions jackpot hit a staggering $810 million, the third largest jackpot in the lottery's history, Mega Millions said in a statement.
The next drawing is set for Tuesday at 11 p.m. ET. Jackpot winners have the option to receive their winnings in the form of one lump sum payment of about $470 million, according to Mega Millions, or in annual payments over 30 years.
The odds of winning the Mega Millions jackpot, wherein all five numbers drawn must match those on the ticket and then a sixth "mega ball" must also match the mega ball number on the ticket, are 1 in 302,575,350. Other prizes are available for matching fewer numbers. It was not immediately clear what Graves would do with the winnings should he win a series of smaller prizes.
This year has already seen three massive jackpot wins: a $426 million win in California in January, a $128 million ticket in New York in March and a $110 million prize in Minnesota in April, Mega Millions said.
The biggest Mega Millions jackpot ever was a staggering $1.537 billion, won in South Carolina in 2018.