Sales Boost Record Mega Millions Jackpot

Wednesday, March 07, 2007 posted 03:05 AM EST

Lottery players lined up at ticket machines across the nation Tuesday, dreaming about the fat bank accounts and permanent vacations that winning the record $370 million Mega Millions jackpot would bring.

Late Tuesday, in a studio in frigid Times Square, lottery officials announced the winning numbers: 16-22-29-39-42; Mega Ball number 20. It wasn't immediately known how many tickets were sold nationwide or who, if anyone, held the winning ticket.

During the day, New Yorkers gobbled up tickets at a rate of more than 1 million an hour, said Robert McLaughlin, the state's lottery director. Virginia retailers sold about 8,550 tickets per minute as Tuesday night's drawing approached.

The deadline for buying tickets was 10:45 p.m. But lottery players in Ohio who waited until late in the day to purchase their tickets were out of luck. The gaming system went down statewide at about 10:20 p.m., said Mardele Cohen, an Ohio lottery spokeswoman.

She said it's unclear what caused the problem and that it would not likely be until Wednesday until the system can be reviewed.

"I'm sure there's going to be some disappointed people. We, ourselves, are very disappointed. This is not a time when you want something like this to happen," Cohen said. "For those people who wanted to make a wager and didn't get a chance, we're very, very sorry."

No problems were reported as of late Tuesday in several other states, including Illinois, Massachusetts, North Carolina and Texas.

After the jackpot hit $355 million on Monday, the 12 participating Mega Millions states agreed to move Tuesday night's drawing from the game's usual home in Atlanta to Times Square. Despite 16-degree temperatures outside, a handful of hopefuls showed up to watch the event through the studio window, waving their tickets in the air.

On Tuesday, Mega Millions officials raised the estimated payout to $370 million, if taken as an annuity. The jackpot's estimated cash option value was $221.1 million, before taxes. The odds of winning the Mega Millions jackpot are about 1 in 176 million.

The largest previous multistate lottery jackpot was $365 million in 2006, when eight workers at a Nebraska meat processing plant hit the Powerball lotto. The Big Game lotto, the forerunner of Mega Millions, paid out a $363 million jackpot in 2000.

At the Fountain News convenience store in Cincinnati, manager Vinay Patel expected to sell 2,500 to 3,000 tickets by the end of the day.

"Some people have bought as many as 200 tickets at a time," Patel said Tuesday morning.

At a Los Angeles convenience store, maps specialist Rikki Bilder bought nine Mega Millions tickets with two co-workers. She said they would quit their jobs if they won.

"I would probably hire a financial consultant, because you can't put this kind of money in 100 banks," said Bilder, 69. "I would study finance, and give to charity. Oh, and I would probably give some of it to my children. I'm old, I'm not going to live 100 years."

At New York's Port Authority Bus Terminal, construction worker Andelko Kalinic had an idea of what he would do if his Mega Millions ticket paid off.

"Go to the moon," he said. "Why not?"

Mega Millions tickets are sold in California, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Texas, Virginia and Washington state.

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