Butler residents scarf up Mega Millions tickets, jackpot soars to $1.02 billion
Alisha Chambers was stuck behind her cash register for the better part of Tuesday, as lines of hopeful millionaires purchased handfuls of Mega Millions lottery tickets.
Within a 10-minute time frame, six people entered the 7-Eleven store on West Jefferson Street and asked Chambers for a ticket.
“For the past few days, it’s been crazy in here,” said Chambers, who has been working there since April.
The estimated jackpot was $830 million, but when no ticket matched all six winning numbers in the 11 p.m. drawing, the Mega Millions jackpot increased to $1.02 billion, the lottery said.
The largest Mega Millions winning ticket previously sold in Pennsylvania was $516 million shared by five people in Bucks County more than a year ago.
With tickets at only $2 apiece, people were buying them in bulk, according to Chambers.
“A lady bought $68 worth of tickets. That’s 34 tickets,” she said. “I was like, ‘In this economy?’ I don’t have 68 extra dollars to play the Mega Millions.”
Nonetheless, Chambers said she bought a ticket.
“I play every week,” she said.
On the other hand, Taylor Blodgett did not plan to purchase a ticket. An employee of Honey Bear Mini-Mart on Institute Hill, she said she sold one person $46 worth of tickets Tuesday.
“I don’t comprehend it,” she said of the Mega Millions game. “The fact that people are coming in and buying $30 worth, it’s crazy.”
An employee of the University Korner gas station on North Main Street Extension said he had no idea how many tickets he sold Tuesday.
“People come in and play hundreds worth of tickets,” he said. “Forty-some dollars? That’s pitiful.”
A people stood huddled together in a line at the gas station register, wishing each other luck as each made a ticket purchase.
“The only thing that matters here is the lottery,” the employee said.
The chances of winning the Mega Millions drawing last night were 302.5 million to one, according to an article by patch.com. The odds of the winner being from Butler County are even more far-fetched in the eyes of Blodgett and Chambers.
“I have no idea the likelihood. It’s one in a million, and there’s a billion playing,” Blodgett said.
“The chances are slim to none, even if there is a winning ticket,” Chambers said.
