Chicagoans brace themselves for billion-dollar Mega Millions lottery draw

In the last hours before a $1 billion Mega Millions lottery drawing, Chicagoans lined up for their piece of the action at a 7-Eleven convenience store in the West Loop.

At 10 p.m., the numbers were drawn: 15 – 23 – 53 – 65 – 70 and Mega Ball 7. In posting the numbers on its Mega Millions website, the lottery said it had no immediate information on any winners.

Earlier, Stacy Tarbis, a regional manager at a biotech company, had been among the dreamers and wishful thinkers lined up to buy a tickets at that 7-Eleven.

Tarbis hadn’t planned to buy a ticket until her father called her on her drive home and told her about the size of the jackpot.

“Probably everyone says this, but I would definitely volunteer, travel a lot. I am a cancer survivor … a 15-years-yesterday cancer survivor, and I would probably do a lot of volunteer work with other people who went through what I went through,” Tarbis said.

“I am absolutely positive I won’t win but, you know, it’s fun” to play.

Robert Bednarz, who lives in suburban Chicago near O’Hare International Airport and sells software, also picked up tickets on his way home from work. After a co-worker bought a handful during his lunch break, his colleagues began talking over what they would do with $1 billion.

“We were thinking about whether or not we’d go back to work, and I think we all decided that we wouldn’t,” Bednarz said. “I think you really have to dig deep, deep down in side and really figure out who you are. What would you do? Think about it. Stop thinking about what you would do when you got it and start thinking about what you would do two years after you got it.”

Romell Franklin, an officer with the University of Chicago Police Department, regularly buys lottery tickets, but the $1 billion jackpot caused him to buy more tickets in an effort to beat the odds. If he won, he said, he would use the money to set his family up financially.

“For one, I got a kid who’s gonna be college-bound soon. That’d be easy, getting him off to a college, university,” Franklin said.

Friday night’s draw is one in a series of huge jackpots, the second-largest lottery prize in U.S. history. Five of the top ten Mega Millions drawing have taken place in the last three years.

In October 2017, Mega Millions cut the odds of winning from one in 259 million to one in 302.5 million, following a similar move by Powerball. They hoped the higher odds would lead to higher jackpots and a surge in ticket purchases. Their gamble has generally paid off.

No one has hit the jackpot since July 24, when a group in California won $543 million.

The $1 billion prize refers to the annuity option. Most winners opt for cash, which for Friday night’s drawing would be $565 million.

Officials say that if there isn’t a winner, the prize for Tuesday night’s drawing would be $1.6 billion, tying the largest U.S. lottery prize.

Contributing: Associated Press