mega millions

Mega Millions Fever Heats Up in the Bay Area as Jackpot Surpasses $1 Billion

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The Mega Millions jackpot is now more than $1 billion, and even though you're more likely to get struck by lightning than strike it rich, Bay Area residents are still feeling optimistic.

"I'm feeling as lucky as anybody else," Kat Ul-Haque of San Jose said.

This is Ul-Haque's first time ever buying a lottery ticket.

"I just got caught up," she said. "Everyone was buying it. Everyone was talking about it. I was just like, 'You know what, it's $10.' That's what, two grande Starbucks drinks?"

The odds of actually winning are over one in a 300 million chance, which is making some people wonder if it's even worth buying a ticket.

"The rational way to choose whether you should buy a lottery ticket or not is to estimate something called the expected value, which is the amount you might win times the probability you'll win it," said Dr. Brian Knutson, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Stanford University.

Knutson crunched the numbers for us. So, would putting $20 down be a bad investment?

"Well, from a rational standpoint, yeah," Knutson said. "After factoring taxes, you're not going to make money overall that way. But, look at you, your excited, your smiling, thinking about what might happen. That has value, right?"

That's pretty much the value many people are latching onto.

"I'm 100% lucky guy, so let's see this Friday," gas station manager Gurpartap Gill said.

Gill hopes to sell the winning ticket, but if he himself actually wins the jackpot, he said he plans to split the winnings with his employees.

"I promised with all of my employees," he said." I said, 'Man, that's enough. You don't need to work. I could share it all with you guys.'"

Ul-Haque said she would donate most of the money to animal shelters.

"That's where my money is going," she said. "My life is going to remain the same. There's just going to be a lot happier puppies and kitties in San Jose."

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