Lottery Players Line Up For Tickets As Mega Millions Jackpot Grows To $454 Million
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — The weather has gotten cooler, but Southern California is heating up with lottery fever as the jackpot for Tuesday night's drawing of the Mega Millions grows to $454 million.
The drawing has brought large crowds to lucky lottery spots such as Bluebird Liquor in Hawthorne, which has previously sold several million-dollar tickets.
"Bluebird has a pretty good record. They got 7 millionaires from this spot, so I figure I'll try to be number eight," customer Phillip D. Gipson said.
Tickets each with five numbers, but missing the Mega number, were sold on Friday in Massachusetts, New York, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania. They are each worth $1 million, according to the Multi-State Lottery Association that conducts the game. Friday's drawing was the 33rd since the last time a ticket with all six numbers was sold.
The odds of matching all five numbers and the Mega number is 1 in 258,890,850, according to the Mega Millions website. The overall chance of winning a prize is 1 in 14.71.
Tuesday night's drawing takes place at 8 p.m. Pacific time, but ticket sales are cut off about 15 minutes prior to the drawing.
The Mega Millions game is played in 44 states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Meanwhile, lottery-watchers are wondering whether a winner will step forward soon to claim their winning Powerball ticket from a January drawing.
"They're probably trying to figure out how they want to collect the money," frequent lottery player Ilene Klein said.
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