At the South Jersey store, Mega Millions players are hoping luck strikes twice

With his freshly printed lottery ticket in hand, Mike Diepetro hoped he had the winning numbers to print 1 billion.

“That would be a beautiful present,” he said. “I hope and pray.”

A steady stream of customers filed in and out of the Lindenwold Preet Food Mart in Camden County, New Jersey, on Christmas Eve to grab their last-minute lottery tickets before Tuesday night. Mega Millions drawing. The jackpot has increased to $1 billion.

The store sold a single one $222.6 million jackpot winning ticket in June that matched every number drawn in Powerball. While you have a better chance of being struck by lightning, regulars say they hope lightning strikes twice.

“Oh man, this is the lucky store right here,” said another customer. “We hit last time, we’re going to hit again.”

Cheriese Majatte had not planned to buy a ticket when she stopped by Tuesday night because her husband had already bought theirs earlier. But she said she couldn’t pass up the chance to increase her odds.

“This is the normal place where my husband comes to play his acts, so I was like, ‘You know what, I’m here, let me just buy some more tickets,'” she said.

The Mega Millions jackpot has been rolling since it was last won for $810 million in Texas on September 10th. No ticket matched all six numbers during the final drawing on Friday night.

It’s been an unlucky year for lottery players with just three Mega Millions jackpot wins, the fewest wins in a single year since the game began in 2002.

If someone wins on Tuesday, it would mark only the second Mega Millions jackpot win on Christmas Eve.

The odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 302,575,350. Winning numbers will be announced in the draw at 11 p.m. ET.