Lotto Max Ticket Sales Go Through the Roof
Excitement is gripping the country as Canadians rush out to buy lottery tickets once more for the Lotto Max draw this weekend.
For the fourth week in the row, the top prize remains $50 million, with the lottery corporation adding more than fifty $1 million prizes.
Last week, 30 of these smaller prizes were won across the country, meaning that even though the top prize wasn't claimed, 30 Canadians woke up to the status of instant millionaires.
Not surprisingly, ticket sales have gone through the roof for this week's draw, with its prize pool of $105 million.
The lottery group believes that a record amount of tickets were sold this week, and that more and more people are getting caught up in the hype.
"You don't buy them because they're deep literature," said Andrea Marantz of the Western Canada Lottery Corp. "It's your entertainment, you get a little bit of fantasy there. That's why people buy lottery tickets. For two days beforehand, you make these grandiose plans of giving your brother or your kids millions of dollars."
A psychologist explained the phenomena of craze buying before a big draw and said about huge jackpots: "They don't make a lot of sense when they happen compared to everyday life. If many people you know who only occasionally buy a ticket are buying for this, that's going to create the perception that you should too. You better get it on it."
"Fifty million dollars is an astronomical sum to be available at one time," he added. "To some people it might look like a once in a lifetime chance, so why not throw in a couple of bucks?"
The odds of hitting the $50 million jackpot is around one in 28 million, by the way. But that hasn't stopped literally millions of people buying their dream tickets in the hope that they will be The One.
