August 28, 2007
Grady County-- Lottery players in 12 states were gobbling up tickets for Tuesday's $250 million Mega Millions Jackpot. Unfortunately for our neighbors to the south, Florida is not one of those states. That's why many Floridians are coming over the state line to Georgia for their chance to strike it rich.
Randy Linton doesn't normally take his chances playing the lottery. "Occasionally a scratch-off but very rarely," he says. But today he couldn't resist shelling out a buck and buying a ticket, because as he says, "this is worth doing."
And with such huge jackpot, that's the consensus among many. "I guess a lot of people, now that its so big, its at $250 million, a lot of people are pretty excited," explains Rakesh Patel, manager at Parkway Junction convenience store.
Linton lives in Tallahassee and while he didn't come here just to buy a ticket today, he thinks a lot of his fellow Floridians would. "When they hear how much it is I'm sure they do," says Linton. Patel adds, "A lot of people from Florida come down just for the lottery, we have cheaper gas prices too so they come down and get some lottery."
And Georgia store owners aren't complaining about the boost in business. If you'd planned to quickly pick up something from a convenience store after work Tuesday, chances are you probably had to wait behind a long line of lottery hopefuls instead. "Usually around 5:00 p.m. when everyone gets off of work people come down for mega millions quick picks and stuff like that," says Patel.
So after picking out your lucky numbers, or relying on fate to do it, all that's left to do is hope you're the one to hit the jackpot.
The drawing for the jackpot is every Tuesday and Friday. It has rolled over 14 times with no winner.
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