Lottery players were not scared off by Friday the 13th in fact, the unlucky holiday increased sales and raised Friday night's Mega Million drawing to $425 million from $400 million, the Associated Press reported.
The potluck is projected to continue into Friday evening by 40 percent, Paula Otto, lead director of the Multi State Lottery Association. If a player wins tonight's drawing, the could walk away with a cash option of $228 million before taxes, the AP reported.
A lotto revamp in October decreased the odds of winning the jackpot, the chances of selecting the six numbers needed to win are 1 in 259, according to the AP. Not even those odds have stopped sales from rising almost 600 percent from normal in Virginia, and almost 400 percent in Oregon.
In New York state, tickets were being sold at a whopping pace of $500,000 an hour by Friday morning compared to the regular pace of $60-70,000 an hour, state lottery spokeswoman Christy Calicchia told AP.
Friday's jackpot is the second largest in Mega Million history behind the $656 million jackpot won in March 2012, the AP reported. The current jackpot has increased over 20 times with no winners yet.
"Won't it be fun if we have a huge lottery winner on Friday the 13th?" Otto told the AP. "I always say there are no unlucky numbers in the lottery. I work on the 13th floor of our building. I like 13. It's certainly fun to have such a big jackpot on a day that some people are superstitious about.
"The good news is, sales are strong. We're not in record territory yet but we probably will be this time next week if we're still talking about this jackpot," she said.
So far, lotto officials say almost 32 percent of the possible combinations have already been sold, but if no one wins tonight's drawing the jackpot will increase to $550 million, the AP reported. The Mega Million is played in 43 states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
