It is no accident that Saturday's record Lotto jackpot will be an estimated $100 million. The more losers, the higher the potential payoff, and the rules of the game were changed last year to produce more losers.
No tickets matched the winning Wednesday numbers of 11-20-24-29-42 with a bonus ball of 15.
Concerned about a dropoff in ticket sales, the Texas Lottery Commission set the stage for bigger, more tempting jackpots by making the game harder to win, nearly doubling the odds from 25 million to 1 to 47 million to 1.
The longer odds meant that more jackpots would go unclaimed, with each unclaimed jackpot making the next one even larger.
"This is what we promised players almost a year ago when we launched the new Lotto Texas game. We said there could be jackpots between $65 million and $100 million at least three to four times in a 52-week period," said Reagan E. Greer, the Lottery Commission's executive director.
The current Lotto jackpot has been building -- twice a week -- without a winner since Feb. 28, when the unclaimed prize started at $4 million.
Ticket sales have been rising, although an $85 million jackpot won by an Austin man in March 2001 still holds the state record for most ticket sales, $50.5 million, for a single drawing, lottery representative Leticia Vasquez said.
Until this week, that had been the game's largest prize. Its sales peaked at 64,000 tickets a minute,
about four times the rate reached shortly before Wednesday night's unsuccessful drawing for $87 million.
Vasquez said 11.4 million tickets at $1 apiece were sold during the four days preceding Wednesday's drawing,
including 8,055,731 tickets on Wednesday alone.
Sales have been increasing with the jackpot.
Some 9.6 million tickets were sold for last Saturday's $81 million prize, which went unclaimed, and 7.3 million
tickets were sold for the $75 million jackpot on June 2.
"The size of the jackpot drives sales," Vasquez said. "We see an increase every time the jackpot grows."
Before the game was changed last year, jackpot winners had to correctly choose six matching numbers from a field of 54.
Now, they have to correctly pick five numbers from a field of 44 plus a correct bonus number from a separate field of 44. New rules stimulate ticket sales.
About one-third of each dollar wagered on the lottery is dedicated to public education. Fifty-eight cents goes toward prizes. The remainder is divided between administrative expenses and the ticket retailers.
The game has generated more than $11.4 billion for state government since it began in 1992.
In December, Texas also joined the Mega Millions multistate lottery with an eye toward boosting sales. Today's Mega Millions jackpot is an estimated $85 million.
Although no one cashed in on the Lotto Texas jackpot Wednesday, the Lottery Commission said players shared more than $1.3 million in smaller prizes.
Lotto fever strikes even nonbuyers.
Store owner Kalvin Pham said Wednesday had not brought unusually large Lotto sales, although regular Lotto customers were buying a few more tickets than usual.
He had one number on the tip of his tongue: His store could garner $870,000 if it sells a winning ticket, Pham said.
The jackpot, which hasn't been hit since February, topped the record $85 million set in 2001. It's now the highest jackpot in the country, even outpacing the multistate game Mega Millions, which has an estimated $85 million jackpot after no one won Tuesday's drawing.
The odds of winning are almost 1 in 47 million.
"This is the kind of Lotto jackpot that gets the attention of players not only in Texas, but also in our neighboring states and in Mexico," said Reagan Greer, executive director of the Texas Lottery Commission.
By 5 p.m., tickets sales hit a rate of about 11,297 per minute.
Danita Quintana, who works at the Toot'n Totum at 1500 S. Ross St., agreed that the most brisk sales usually are between 8 and 9 p.m. before the drawing.
"That's when everybody comes," Quintana said.
Clerk Gayflor Forkpa said the biggest single Lotto sale at the store by late Wednesday afternoon was a purchase of 185 tickets.
Ricky Romero of Amarillo stopped in to buy scratch-off and Pick 5 lottery tickets. He usually doesn't play Lotto Texas, he said, but he bought a ticket after Quintana and Forkpa played up Wednesday's big jackpot.
"A lot of lottery" is how Amy Ariza described her afternoon shift at the Diamond Shamrock Fast Stop at 2501 W. Third Ave.
Her customers typically bought five to 40 tickets at a time, she said.
"All of them say if they win, they're going to come back for us," Ariza said with a laugh.
Extravagant jackpots drive up ticket sales, making this week's numbers a relief to Texas lottery officials who feared sales would suffer after the state recently began participating in Mega Millions.
"Sales are much higher in Lotto Texas. There's a higher interest level and higher allegiance, loyalty to game," Greer said. "But both are performing well."
An estimated $87 million will be up for grabs Wednesday night in the highest Lotto Texas jackpot to date.
Lottery Commission officials say this is the kind of Lotto jackpot that gets the attention of players not only in Texas, but also in neighboring states and in Mexico.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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