Customers have been lining up at convenience stores around midtown, hoping they’ll be the winner of $1.6 billion in Tuesday night’s Mega Millions drawing.
Stephen Marks of Brooklyn, who works for an insurance company in midtown, took his lunch break to head to Headline News convenience store on West 31st Street.
“I can’t believe the numbers are this high,” Marks said. “This is amazing. I’ve never seen anything like this. I think everyone would love to be that lucky winner. I know I do.”
The prize is a record for Mega Millions, surpassing the previous record $1.586 billion jackpot for a Powerball drawing in 2016. The prize reached $1.6 billion after nobody won a $1 billion drawing on Friday.
With that much money, the average person can fulfill virtually any dream they have.
Marks said he and his wife have always talked about retiring to Connecticut, where life is a lot slower, and quiet.
“I still have another two more years left,” Marks said. “I’d finish them out, then put to use the money from the winnings toward our retirement in Connecticut and anything else we need.”
Devin Thomas of Yonkers said he would help relatives before spending it on himself.
“I’d first pay off my entire parents’ mortgage,” Thomas said. “Then, buy myself a house of my own.”
Though lottery ticket holders face a one in 303 million chance of winning, it doesn’t stop New Yorkers from taking a leap of faith.
“I don’t think it’s been this high for as long as I’ve lived here,” said Charlie Xin, who was outside Headline News. “Normally it’s something I always laugh at people doing, but something told me to play this time. It doesn’t hurt to try and if I win, I win. What’s the worst that can happen, you don’t win? At least you’re not losing anything.”
Some New Yorkers have even played the lottery multiple times, trying to up their chances at a win, like Patricia Davis of Harlem.
Davis spent her lunch break purchasing a lottery ticket and said it was the second of three she would be purchasing.
“Everyone at work was talking about playing it,” she said. “I decided to play now and then once I get home I’ll play by the deli near my building. It doesn’t hurt to play more than once.”
Anyone who purchased the $2 ticket must hit all six numbers to win the jackpot. Lottery officials have stated that tickets sold for Tuesday’s drawings are expected to cover 75 percent of all possible number combinations.
Winners could either choose an immediate cash payment of $904 million or receive the $1.6 billion prize over the next 29 years. If more than one person wins, the jackpot would be divided proportionately.
The drawing will be held at 11 p.m.
With Reuters
