Lottery retailers are reporting unprecedented levels of demand as the Mega Millions jackpot continues to make waves in the US.
Tuesday’s draw came and went without a winner matching all six numbers, which means the jackpot has now increased to an ‘astounding’ figure of $1.025bn, the third highest in its 20-year history.
An increased jackpot could boost the rate of ticket sales, after NBC New York reported earlier this week that tickets were selling at a rate of 1,700 a minute in New Jersey on Tuesday afternoon, while 1,800 were being sold every 60 seconds in Connecticut.
Online lottery provider theLotter also shared ‘massive’ ticket orders from two of its strands – theLotter Australia and theLotter Texas.
Meanwhile, Mega Millions has reported ‘unprecedented’ traffic following Tuesday’s draw, and the demand ultimately proved too strong for its website, which was down for more than two hours on the night.
“We look with anticipation on the growing jackpot,” said Ohio Lottery Director Pat McDonald, current Lead Director of the Mega Millions Consortium.
“Seeing the jackpot build over a period of months and reaching the billion-dollar mark is truly breathtaking. We encourage customers to keep play in balance and enjoy the ride.
“Someone is going to win.”
Friday night’s drawing will be the 30th in this jackpot run, which began on April 19.
There were a total of 6,775,330 winning tickets at all prize levels for the July 26 draw, with nine tickets matching the five white balls to win the Mega Millions second place prize.
Two each were sold in New Jersey and New York, plus one each in California, Florida, Illinois and Ohio.
Currently, the record jackpot stands at $1.54bn, won by a South Carolina resident in October 2018.
