Record Jackpot for Saturday’s Game : There Are 35 Million Reasons for Lottomania

Lotto fever swept California on Thursday as the predicted jackpot for Saturday swelled to a record $35 million or more, depending on how many tickets are sold for the drawing.

Store clerks said many of those buying tickets were openly scheming on how to win and spend the dream prize. Lottery officials said if one lucky person picks all six correct numbers out of a choice of 49 numbers, the player will receive roughly $1.4 million annually, after federal income tax withholdings, for 20 years.

The jackpot would be the fourth largest ever offered by the states that conduct lotto games and the biggest in the 19-month-old California Lotto 6/49 game by about $10 million, according to lottery officials.

The largest prize won by players in California was $25.4 million, split between a Long Beach longshoreman and a retired car salesman from Sacramento in October. The largest state lottery jackpot nationally, $48 million, was won by a Pennsylvania couple in October.

Lottery Director Chon Gutierrez said people who want to gamble on the $1 tickets should play early to avoid crowds Saturday. The drawing is at 8 p.m. He said long lines for Wednesday’s $26.1-million jackpot, which nobody won, are expected to get longer. The jackpot was added to the top prize for Saturday.

Other states have experienced a doubling of the average weekly sales when a big jackpot is up for grabs, Gutierrez said. If the same thing occurs in California, it will produce the conservative $35-million-plus jackpot that has been predicted.

Throughout the state, $24.6 million in ticket sales from Saturday night to Wednesday night’s drawing set a new record, with $18.7 million Wednesday alone reaching a new high for one-day sales, he said.