In bad economic times, plenty of people are hoping for a little luck.
A lot of people.
Lottery players have plunked down cash in record numbers over the past year, spending $1.48 billion worth of tickets. All those sales brought the state of Virginia $444 million in profits, a 3-percent increase over last year.
The results are for the fiscal year that wrapped up on June 30. But Virginia Lottery says it's not just taking - in the past year, the agency says it awarded a record amount of prize money.
Plenty of locals have been taking home a piece of the pie. On August 10, a McLean man took a $107 million prize for picking the winning numbers in the Mega Millions game. On July 20, a Fairfax woman took $100,000 in the Cash 5 game. Also in July, a Woodbridge man didn't get cash, but he won a Ford F-150 in the Truckin' for Cash Sweepstakes.
Lottery executive Paula Otto said part of the success has come by increasing the number of lottery vendors.
Virginia Lottery Sells Record Number of Tickets
Copyright AP - Associated Press