Mega-lines at Va. lottery retailers

Mega-lines at Va. lottery retailers

	Published : Tue, 06 Mar 2007 20:22 By : Agencies Print this Story

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - It was just like the good old days Tuesday for Virginia Lottery retailers along the state's southern border as North Carolina residents came in droves to buy tickets for the record $370 million Mega Millions jackpot.

Sheila Hill-Christian, director of the Virginia Lottery, said retailers were selling about 8,550 tickets per minute as Tuesday night's drawing approached. The lottery expected to sell 5.2 million tickets -- nearly five times more than usual -- on Tuesday alone.

'The fever is definitely hot and heavy now,' Hill-Christian said.

Business was especially brisk at ticket outlets along the North Carolina border.

'We have been extremely busy,' said Patricia Palmer, a cashier at the E-Z Stop 107 in Ridgeway. 'They say they like it when the jackpot gets big like that, but when it doesn't they don't even bother driving up from North Carolina.'

Before North Carolina launched its own number games last year, its residents accounted for an estimated 8 percent to 10 percent of Virginia Lottery sales. Hill-Christian said that percentage declined this year, but Virginia Lottery officials knew their southern neighbors would return if the Mega Millions jackpot got big enough.

'It's hard to get players excited about anything less than $200 million,' she said.

Low jackpots and the new competition from North Carolina prompted the Virginia Lottery to lower its projected profit for this fiscal year from $425 million to $405 million. Now it appears the agency will hit its original estimate, Hill-Christian said.

Virginia is one of 12 states participating in the Mega Millions drawing, which was moved from Atlanta to New York's Times Square this week to capitalize on the frenzy. North Carolina offers the multistate Powerball game, but that jackpot for Wednesday's drawing is only $120 million.

The Mega Millions game's predecessor, the seven-state Big Game, held the previous jackpot record of $363 million. The prize was split between two winners in Michigan and Illinois. The largest single winner was $314.9 million in the Powerball game.

The odds of winning the Mega Millions jackpot are about 1 in 176 million. Besides Virginia, Mega Millions tickets are sold in California, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Texas and Washington state.