This week's jackpot prize for Mega Millions hits record-high. Players have gone just a little wild by purchasing more tickets and driving up sales. Being second largest in Mega Millions jackpot history, the lucky winner will bring home the bacon with the $316 cash option.

USA Today reports that sales for the nearest draw have amounted to 11 million every hour across 43 states that play Mega Millions. Tuesday's $586 million jackpot is also most likely to be bumped up $625 million or more by the draw date.

"Lotto players are procrastinators. They tend to buy on the day of the draw," says Paul Otto, Virginia state lottery director and lead director for the Multi State Lottery Association.

According to him, players are more attracted to buy their tickets in the hours nearing the 11:00 pm draw. Multi State Lottery Director Chuck Strutt also noticed the same trend. In fact, he says that 70 percent of sales occur the very same day of a drawing in some states.

Experts say that if no winner is drawn Tuesday and this week's frenzied sales were to go on until the holiday season, the jackpot prize for Mega Millions might just hit $1 billion.

The $586 million jackpot for Mega Millions started off as a meager $12 million jackpot last October 4. Since then, the prize money has rolled 21 times - with no ticket hitting all five numbers and the Million Ball.

Mega Millions underwent a game revamp last October which has decreased the odds of hitting the jackpot from 1 in 176 million to 1 in 259 million.

Still, the decreased odds of bringing home fast-money do not discourage seasoned players or new ones to be part of the mix.

Drew Gentsch, an attorney from Des Moines said that although he has never played Mega Millions before, the jackpot prize was too tempting.

"I think it's ridiculous but you have to dream big. The odds of winning are so low, there's no real reason to play. But it's fun to do so once in a while," he said in a report.

No ticket matched all five numbers and the Mega Ball last Friday night's drawing. The winning numbers for the last draw are:

19, 24, 26, 27, 70, Mega Ball 12

Nine tickets matched the first five numbers and won the $1 million second-tier prize. Winners were from Colorado, Connecticut and New Jersey, with two winners each coming from Florida, Michigan and New York.

The next draw will be Tuesday, December 17, 11:00 pm ET.

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