Mega Millions Drawing Tonight! Do You Have A Ticket?
BOSTON (CBS) -- The Mega Millions drawing is tonight…. How lucky do you feel?
Tuesday night's Mega Millions drawing is worth $355 million.
Mark Cavanaugh, the executive director of the Massachusetts Lottery, says the lottery is a very attractive one. "By rush hour tonight, my IT people are telling me that sales could top 6,000 per minute."
WBZ-TV's Ron Sanders reports.
Cavanaugh adds that a Massachusetts winner is way overdue. The last time a lottery this big was won in Massachusetts was back in 2004, when a woman cashed in a ticket worth $294 million.
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WBZ News Radio's Karen Twomey asks what would you do if you won the jackpot?
Meanwhile, five clerks at Stateline Mobil in Methuen have been working nearly non-stop selling tickets.
The $355 million prize is the third highest in Mega Millions history. The lump sum cash option would rake in $224 million, with $157 million coming home after taxes.
Anthony Martinez of Woburn, who's unemployed, rode his bike to the Methuen store and bought 25 tickets hoping to win something for his three kids. "My strategy is birthdays and odd numbers," he said.
Lottery officials said agents will have sold about $26 million in tickets in this 16-drawing series of the game, raising $11 million for Bay State cities and towns. Jen Moran of Salem, N.H. bought a lucky 13 tickets. "They're my grandparents' birth dates, anniversary dates...some quick picks and then my son he picked some numbers for me," she explained.
Tony Amico, who owns Stateline Mobil, said even though New Hampshire has Mega Millions, many of his customers go to him for tickets because he's been lucky for others in the past who have won prizes worth $42 million, $35 million as well as several $4 million and $1 million winners. "They're all playing quick picks and they're getting multiple ones. They're getting 20, 30, 40 dollars worth. So everyone really wants to win. They're taking all the chances they can," said Amico.
Herb Serpa of Salem, N.H. takes a studied approach. He graphs numbers from winning combinations. "I have a summary here of how often numbers come out for the past six months and the last time they've come out."
One dream machine was spitting out 120 chances for Skip Troisi of Salem, N.H. who hoped to win some relief for himself and his wife who he says has pulmonary problems. "I just want to get out of debt...so I can take her away from all this...I've been out of work almost three years. I got hurt real bad on my job and then I got hit by a car. I got run over... I'm not greedy. I'm needy," said Troisi.
Nancy Reardon of Methuen bought tickets for herself and 57 of her closest friends. "My co-workers at the Registry of Motor Vehicles in Lawrence," who she said would retire if they hit. "You'd have to go to another branch but you can go on line and do a lot of things on line too."
The drawing takes place at 11:24 p.m. Tuesday.
WBZ News Radio's Karen Twomey and WBZ-TV's Ron Saunders contributed to this report.
