COLUMBIA, S.C. — It's a big weekend for anyone who plays the lottery. Both the Powerball and Mega-Millions jackpots are over $500 million.
"Help my family out and buy my husband a sailboat": Tammy Laney says she'll buy if she wins either of the two jackpots up for grabs this weekend.
The Powerball jackpot is $875 million, and the Mega-Millions jackpot is $560 million. The Powerball lottery jackpot has rolled 36 times without a winner.
According to the South Carolina Education Lottery, this is only the third time both games have simultaneously posted jackpots over $500 million.
Laney says the high jackpots convinced her to buy two tickets even though she doesn't usually play.
"Not very often," Laney said. "Only when it gets up to this amount."
According to SC Education Lottery, the odds of winning the Powerball jackpot are about 1 in 293 million, and the odds of winning the Mega-Millions are about 1 in 303 million.
"I'm sure they're going to be very slim," Laney said. "But you don't know until you try."
The state lottery said this week it's making its second-largest contribution to education this fiscal year. Players in the state won more than $1.6 billion in prizes this year, and lottery retailers earned more than $169 million in commissions.
"Lottery gives us a good commission," Patel said. "And we make some money on the lottery."
Bakul Patel is one of those retailers. He says it's good for business when the jackpots are this high. He says one customer beat him to the store this morning, and others have been streaming in all day.
"I was coming in today, in the morning, with one guy waiting for the Powerball tickets," Patel said. "And I'm so glad, and I open and I just sell the ticket."
For Patel, selling a winning lottery ticket would put his business on the map.
"I'm a one and a half year old, and still people don't know that I'm here," Patel said. "But if I win the lottery on a big jackpot, of course everyone knows where is my store."
Even Patel himself is taking his chances. He bought two tickets for himself this morning.
The Mega-Millions drawing will be Friday at 11 p.m., and players must buy tickets by 10:00 p.m. The Powerball drawing will be Saturday at 10:59 p.m.
The South Carolina Education Lottery reminds players it only takes one ticket to win and to play responsibly.