[Natalie Allen, Cnn Anchor:] Well, are you feeling lucky? If you think you can flip a coin and see heads 26 times in a row, or dial a phone number at random in Britain and reach Queen Elizabeth, you may be ready for the "Big Game," let's try it. On the other hand, you may care more about the jackpot, which is $350 million now. More about the jackpot and the odds against winning it, which are 76 million to one. That's certainly the case for the millions of folks who, in some cases, are standing in line for hours for the chance to risk hundreds, even thousands of dollars on a dream. With the largest jackpot in U.S. lottery history up for grabs just hours from now, "Big Game" ticket sales are expected to reach 30 times the usual volume. Most of those players have a pretty clear notion of what they might buy if they won, but if you're at a loss, may we suggest barnesandnoble.com? The on-line bookseller is worth an estimated $302 million, easily within the budget of a "Big Game" winner. Or how about his and her Boeing 777s? Those state-of-the-art wide body commercial jets go for $160 million apiece, take two. If you're into self-improvement, consider a Harvard education for yourself and 2,546 friends. Four years at Harvard cost about $137,400.
[Lou Waters, Cnn Anchor:] Well, some of the busiest "Big Game" ticket sellers are the ones near the borders of states that don't have the game. CNN's Gary Tuchman joins us now from Ringgold, Georgia, just a ping-pong ball's throw from Tennessee. Meeting a lot of folks today, Gary?
[Gary Tuchman, Cnn Correspondent:] A lot of excited folks. A lot of people who think they are going win today, Lou. And we are in Ringgold, Georgia, the Golden Gallon convenience store where customers are hoping to strike gold. $350 million has brought out hundreds of Georgians but more Tennesseans because as you said, we're a ping-pong ball away from Tennessee. So, thousands of Tennesseans have driven from all over the state to places like this right on the state line to try to win the "Big Game" lottery. Seven states have the "Big Game." In alphabetical order they are: the state of Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, and Virginia. The odds of winning this, 76 million to one. To give you an idea of what that means, 76 million to one would also be taking 26 quarters, throwing them in the air, and having them all land on heads at the same time. Try that when the newscast is over, you will find it will not happen and if it does, you should play the "Big Game" because you're a very lucky person. Lots of people here think they are lucky, they ladies drove all the way from Nashville, Tennessee. How many miles is Nashville from here?
[Unidentified Female:] Like two and a half hours. Two fifty.
[Tuchman:] You have to know the answer to that question, you can't win the "Big Game."
[Unidentified Female:] Like two hundred and fifty.
[Tuchman:] OK, how long did it take you to get here?
[Unidentified Female:] Almost four hours.
[Tuchman:] How much money did you spend on your ticket?
[Unidentified Female:] Ten bucks.
[Tuchman:] Only ten bucks? you drove that far?
[Unidentified Female:] Uh-huh.
[Tuchman:] OK, well, actually that's pretty good because the odds are 76 million to one. Think you have any chance of winning?
[Unidentified Female:] Sure.
[Tuchman:] You do?
[Unidentified Female:] Yes.
[Tuchman:] Because you heard what I just said about tossing the quarters in the air, you have 26 quarters you want to toss?.
[Unidentified Female:] I have a better chance of winning now that I have a ticket in my hand instead of not having one.
[Tuchman:] A valid point, but do you think you have a possibility of winning?
[Unidentified Female:] Sure, everybody does.
[Tuchman:] How will you feel tomorrow though, when you hear the numbers and you find out that it's likely not yours?
[Unidentified Female:] Disappointed, I guess.
[Tuchman:] Ladies, thanks for joining us, hope you have a nice time in Ringgold, Georgia. We have the manager over here, Sherry, come on over here for a second. How crazy has it been today, Sherry?
[Unidentified Female:] It's been massively crazy.
[Tuchman:] And it was crazy last Friday too, because the drawing is every Tuesday and Friday. Friday was for 200 plus million. Today 350 million. I bet you're expecting it to get pretty wild later.
[Unidentified Female:] Yes, it's been wild every day since last Thursday.
[Tuchman:] Do you like this? Is it good or bad?
[Unidentified Female:] It's good, it's good for our business.
[Tuchman:] OK, an enthusiastic person, thank you very much for talking with us, Sherry. So you can imagine, right now it's pretty crowded here. There are about 25 people inside this small store and by the time this store sells its last "Big Game" ticket at 10:45 Eastern time tonight, they're expecting it to be standing room only. Lou, back to you.
[Waters:] Did you get your ticket, Gary?
[Tuchman:] Lou, believe it or not, I haven't gotten it yet. But I have a policy: one ticket, because it's all you need to win. It only costs a buck, so you don't feel bad when you lose.
[Waters:] There you go, Gary Tuchman, down at the Golden Gallon in Ringgold, Georgia today, on assignment. If you've done the math, you know the "Big Game" is taking in a lot more money than it's paying out. So where does the rest of the money go? It varies, state to state, but schools are among the big beneficiaries, and so are the students. More on that from Jerry Carnes of CNN affiliate WXIA in Atlanta.
[Jerry Carnes, Wxia Reporter:] Alyssa Paetau just finished her sophomore year at Georgia Tech. This biology major is working an on-campus job to help her pay for housing and books. She doesn't have to worry about tuition. All of Georgia's multimillion dollar dreamers are paying for that. Lottery sales are currently paying for more than 141,000 students to attend Georgia colleges by way of the Hope scholarship. In Alyssa's case, it made what would've been a financial struggle easy.
[Alyssa Paetau, Georgia Tech Student:] Yes. I have a lot of friends from South Carolina and Alabama who are extremely jealous of my Hope scholarship, and they're like: man, I live just 10 minutes over the border and you get Hope and I don't, it's just not fair.
[Carnes:] Even though Georgia participates in the "Big Game" lottery with seven other states, money spent on tickets here goes toward education here. Thirty-five percent of each dollar spent pays for college scholarships. New equipment and more. As the "Big Game" jackpot soared from 250 million to now over 300 million, total lottery ticket sales topped in Georgia topped $75 billion last week. That's $26 million generated for education in Georgia in one week. It's nearly double the 15 million generated by the lottery in an average week.
[Paetau:] It's incentive for me to work hard and keep my grades up here.
[Carnes:] In a few months, Alyssa Paetau will leave Georgia Tech to study respiratory therapy at the Medical College of Georgia. But don't think she'll leave her Hope scholarship behind, the lottery will pay for her tuition there as well.
[Waters:] And we have more good news for Alyssa and students like her: lottery officials tell us "Big Game" tickets are selling at a rate of 12,000 a minute in Georgia alone.
[Allen:] Well, it turns out the vast majority of lottery players don't bet their mortgages, or even their milk money. A Gallup poll found 39 percent of Americans spend $4 or less on lottery games in any given month, 25 percent spend between $5 and $9, 29 percent spend between $10 and $29, and just 6 percent spend $30 or more. Slightly more than half of folks earning less than $25,000 a year play lotteries, but among those earning $25,000 to $45,000 a year the figure is higher, 61 percent. It's highest of all, 65 percent, among folks who earn between $45,000 and $75,000 a year.