SIOUX FALLS S.D. (KELO) — The Mega Millions lottery drawing is set for Christmas Eve, with the jackpot soaring to nearly $1 billion.
The estimated jackpot would make it the seventh-largest in the game’s history and its seventh billion-dollar prize.
If someone wins, the grand prize will be the largest jackpot ever won in the month of December. The cash value of the jackpot is estimated to be $448.8 million.
Many stores reported a higher than average amount of people stopping in to buy Mega Millions to get in their chance to win the Mega Millions. Brian Welbig, manager at Lewis Drug at 10th and Cliff, said this year he is expecting a larger crowd as the day goes on.
“We will see more as the day goes on and we will probably see that push that we usually see towards the end of the day, we are mainly seeing a lot of people stop by, but we will be seeing that push as the day goes on,” Welbig said.
Welbig said that Mega Millions aren’t the only thing people are stopping by for, adding that people are also stopping by to get scratch-off tickets for stocking stuffers as well.
Welbig said this isn’t the first time they have experienced something like this.
“When the Powerball got up to $300 million there were a lot of people stopping in so much so that we were trying to close by 5 p.m. on Christmas Eve, but people just kept coming in.” Welbig said.
“I would say that on average 3 out of 5 people stopping in are buying a mega millions ticket,” Amanda, an employee at a Freedom gas station, said.
She added that in addition to the mega millions they were seeing an increase in scratch cards for stocking stuffers as well.
Oeubatel with Food-N-Fuel, said they have had a lot of their regulars coming in to buy Mega Millions tickets and there has been an increase.
The next drawing will be at 10 p.m. CT on Tuesday, Dec. 24.
