$155 million Mega Millions drawing is tonight at 11:00 PM Eastern Time
Today might not be the best day to stop at a convenience store for a quick cup of coffee.
The Mega Millions jackpot was still growing Monday night, hitting $155 million. The multistate lottery is in New York and 10 other states.
The huge jackpot has attracted regular customers plus those enticed to spend an extra dollar this week.
"I don't play regularly," said Sean Sweeney, 18, of Oakdale Drive in Elmira, a clerk at the Convenient Food Mart at 502 Broadway in Elmira.
He was going to make an exception before the drawing tonight. However, he has no delusions about his chances of winning.
"Pretty close to zero," he said.
The lines probably won't be any shorter at lottery vendors in Pennsylvania. The Powerball jackpot -- at an estimated $210 million -- is the largest lottery jackpot in the world this week. Powerball, played in Pennsylvania and 23 other states, Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands, will hold its next drawing Wednesday.
Not only are there more customers buying tickets for the Powerball jackpot, but more people buy multiple tickets, said Barb Garrison, a part-time clerk at the Dandy Mini Mart in Green's Landing, Pa.
Nicole Bortle, a clerk at Acorn Markets on Main Street in Athens, Pa. said she has had customers buy $60 worth of tickets at one time.
That's going too far for Mary Keefe, 43, of Hudson Street in Elmira, who said she has been buying a lottery ticket every day since they started the lotteries and will buy a Mega Million ticket, maybe even two.
She was using the automatic vending machine at Convenient to buy a different kind of lottery ticket Monday night.
"It's fun," she said. "I do give it up for Lent."
She won $7,000 once, but that probably doesn't even come close to what she has spent, a dollar or two at a time, she said.
"I should quit smoking so I can buy more lottery tickets," she said.
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