NORTHAMPTON — More than a billion dollars is up for grabs in two major national lottery drawings this week.
An estimated $970 million is at stake in Friday’s Mega Millions jackpot drawing while $430 million is the prize in Saturday’s Powerball jackpot drawing.
The Mega Millions jackpot has reached a historic level, surpassing its previous record amount of $656 million set in 2012, according to a press release.
There were no winners in either of the lottery drawings earlier this week; in fact, no one has won the Mega Millions jackpot since July or the Powerball jackpot since August, causing the prize to inflate.
Twenty-six-year-old Bitton Bent doesn’t buy lottery tickets often. But on Tuesday, he was in the Valley for work from New York City and stopped at Shell on Pleasant Street where he bought a Mega Millions ticket. He has some ideas about what he’d do with the winnings. “I’d pay all my family’s bills and buy a house,” he said.
Pleasant Street Shell clerk John Sullivan said he’s seen an increase in interest and chatter around the lottery. The store has a lot of regulars who buy tickets, but he’s seen more lottery novices coming in lately. “Some lady filled out a ticket three times before getting it right – she just hadn’t done it before,” he said.
At Northampton Market, clerk Cassandra Colby agreed.
“People who don’t normally buy tickets are (buying them),” she commented, adding that there had been steady traffic all day and expected it to pick up Thursday evening.
Colby plans to get her own ticket before the drawing Friday — when it’s this big, she said, she always plays.
“It keeps the dream alive until the numbers have been drawn,” she said.
The numbers are not in your favor. If you’re looking to strike it rich in the lottery this weekend, good luck. According to the Mega Millions website, the odds of winning the jackpot are very slim: about one in 300 million. Similarly, your chance of winning the Powerball jackpot is about one in 292 million.
For comparison’s sake, you’re much more likely to be struck by lightning in any given year than win the lottery. Those odds are one in 700,000, according to National Geographic.
It’s not impossible, though — winning state lottery tickets have been sold in the Valley. In March 2017, Paula Pelkey of Florence won $1 million from a ticket she got at Pride Station & Store in Easthampton. And last fall, Donald Creighton III of Easthampton also won $1 million from a ticket he purchased at Racing Mart in Northampton.
Chet Maslowski bought Powerball and Mega Millions tickets at Northampton Market Thursday afternoon. The Northampton resident is an occasional lottery player, but the large prize this time convinced him to get a ticket.
As he put it, “Can’t win if you don’t play.”
Greta Jochem can be reached at gjochem@gazettenet.com