‘Big Game’ Lottery Fever Becomes Affliction of Choice

Someone had better win the Big Game multi-state drawing soon because the lottery’s billboards can’t roll over to $200 million.

No one has picked all six numbers in the Big Game in two months, bumping the jackpot for Tuesday night’s drawing to $150 million, the second highest in its history.

With Big Game tickets available only in Georgia, Illinois, Virginia, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan and New Jersey, mobs of buyers gathered at stores just inside those states’ lines.

“Retailers on the borders are talking about two- and three-hour lines,” said Rebecca Paul, executive director of the Georgia State Lottery Corp. “We’re about 10 times higher than a normal week.”

At the Mom and Pop Store in Kingsland, Ga., people flocked from Jacksonville, Fla., in hopes of beating the lottery’s odds of 80 million to 1.

Police had to direct traffic on the crowded road, and an employee said sales at the store have been three times the usual, with people spending as much as $200 on lottery tickets.

Lottery workers in Georgia who oversee the Big Game hoped for a winner. If the jackpot were to reach $200 million, there isn’t room on the billboards to put a 2 over the 1, lottery officials said.

When the lottery hit $197 million last year--won by a Massachusetts woman--the state considered changing its billboards, but the cost was prohibitive, the officials said.