EAST PEORIA, Ill. – There’s multiple chances to win life-changing money this weekend.
A combined $1.4 billion is up for grabs in the jackpots for three separate lottery games.
The grand prize for Friday night’s Mega Millions drawing was $560 million, the 7th largest in that game’s history. But, with no winner, the Mega Millions jackpot grows to $640 million.
A much larger jackpot of $875 million is at stake in Saturday night’s Powerball drawing. That’s the 3rd largest amount in a Powerball drawing in history.
The 2nd largest jackpot in five years for the Illinois Lottery’s Lotto game will also be drawn Saturday night, with a top prize of $19.4 million.
Pragnish Patel owns a gas station in Sunnyland, and says he’s noticed people trying to increase their odds of winning with the larger jackpots.
“A lot of tickets, people buying one, now they buy 10, 20,” Patel said.
Some of the customers in Patel’s store told us what they would do with the winnings.
“Probably make sure that I got a summer home and a winter home, and then I’d make sure all my family was okay. Buy a house for my kids,” one customer said.
“Maybe go back to Hawaii because I’ve already been there,” said another customer. “And then maybe go down to the Caribbean.”
Other plans include donating to charities and starting businesses.
