Lotto players hopeful for a piece of the $475M Mega Millions jackpot

The Mega Millions jackpot has risen once again, and now you could have the chance to win $475 million.

The cash option is just over $319 million.

Channel 2′s Berndt Petersen spoke with people buying tickets at the Shell Food Mart along Simonton Road in Lawrenceville, who told him they were dreaming big as they bought their chance at the massive jackpot.

You can watch the Mega Millions drawing LIVE on WSB-TV every Tuesday and Friday night at 11 p.m., followed by WSB Tonight.

People told Petersen they believe the last 14 months made many of us stronger.

“We have to cope. It’s something that nobody expected. It came. And thank God, we’re weathering it through,” Mega Millions player Bayo Sedenu said.

Sedenu shared some words of wisdom right after he bought a couple tickets. The cloudy days are behind us, many of these lottery players seemed to say. Now, it’s time to win some money.

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“Everybody is saying the lottery is doing some things. The other day, I won $500 on a $2 scratch off,” said Sheldon Patterson.

Patterson said he figures why not $500 million on a $2 ticket.

Sedunu is hopeful too. But even if he doesn’t win, he told Petersen he believes the future is getting brighter.

“Like they say, the light is at the end of the tunnel. Now we see the lights,” Sedunu said.

It has been since February that anyone has won the Mega Millions jackpot. That ticket was worth $96 million and was drawn in Blossvale, New York.

The other jackpot won this year was second largest in Mega Millions history. A whopping $1.05 billion prize went to a group of players in Michigan.

Here are some interesting facts about Mega Millions:

• The odds of winning the Mega Millions jackpot are 302,575,350 to 1.
• The largest Mega Millions jackpot won on a single ticket was drawn in October 2018 in South Carolina.
• That prize was worth $1.537 billion, making it the world’s largest lottery prize won on a single ticket.
• Six Mega Millions jackpots have been won on a Friday the 13th.
• There was a jackpot winner in the very first Mega Millions drawing. The drawing on May 17, 2002, resulted in a $28 million winning ticket in Illinois.
• Since the game began in 2002, there have been 194 jackpots won by 219 individual tickets. Twenty of those jackpots have been shared by two or more winning tickets.

4 people will split $1.05B Mega Millions jackpot from January drawing (NCD)

Cox Media Group