MegaMillion Ticket Sales Soar to $28,000 Per Minute Friday Afternoon

Realizing that lottery lightening couldn't possibly strike twice in one month, I mosied over to the on Branch Avenue inon Friday afternoon to purchase what was sure to be my winning MegaMillions ticket and found out, I was not alone in my thinking.

A steady stream of lottery customers flowed through while I was there and according to Bhavesh Chaubhari, who works behind the counter, the convenience store had sold 1,400 tickets on Friday by around 2:30 p.m.

With the MegaMillions jackpot climbing to $640 million, sporting a cash value of $462 million, ticket sales have also gone through the roof for the multi-state game, according to the New Jersey Lottery.

According to a lottery spokesperson, ticket sales for the MegaMillions drawing on Friday between 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. logged in at $28,000 per minute.

"Ticket sales are incredible," said Carole Hedinger, the state lottery's executive director. "Everyone wants to be a part of history in the making and they have to put that dollar in the game to do it."

Joe Lane, of Little Silver, was walking out of the store as I got there and said that while he's not a big lottery ticket buyer, he does purchase tickets for big jackpots. The current jackpot surpassed the all time MegaMillions record which was $390 million in 2007.

Ticket sales in New Jersey for this drawing, as of Thursday, were $59.8 million. Forty-two states participate in the MegaMillions game as well as Washington, DC and the Virgin Islands. New Jersey's sales represent 6.7 percent of total ticket sales.

Marc Attardi, also of Little Silver, was at the counter buying his MegaMillions tickets with his two school-aged children who said they were going to visit China and Dubai if they struck it big. The jackpot winning ticket must have all five numbers and the Mega number but there are nine ways to win.

Kim Quigley of Little Silver said her husband, who's a big lottery player, had already purchased their tickets but she bought one more of the $1 tickets for good measure. She said when her husband was excited when he found out that the winner of last week's bought the ticket at the "He raced home to check his tickets," she laughed.

Outside the store, I talked with Szilvia Kollar, who lives in Little Silver but is originally from Hungary. She said if she won the jackpot, which will be drawn Friday night at 11 p.m., she would return home and buy a house for her family.

Dianna Quick of Leonardo, who opted to pick her own numbers at the counter, said she would wipe clean all of her student loans if she strikes it big Friday night.

“Thinking, dreaming and talking to family and friends about what one would do if they won this amazing jackpot is so much fun," said Hedinger from the New Jersey Lottery. "People around the country love to ponder and talk about their dreams.  We are so excited to be a part of the dynamics behind the conversation.”

The gentlemen behind the 7-Eleven counter were very amused that after I finished talking to customers, I purchased my own five tickets. "Good luck," they said, and waved me off smiling into the parking lot.