The North Carolina lottery commission voted unanimously Monday afternoon to add MegaMillions to its lineup, giving the state a second multi-state game with eye-popping jackpots.

MegaMillions tickets could start selling as early as Jan. 31. North Carolina has sold Powerball tickets since 2006, the year the state lottery began, with two drawings a week on Wednesday and Saturday The addition of MegaMillions will give players two more drawings a week, Tuesday and Friday, in which the jackpot can balloon to $200 million or more.

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ONE MORE QUESTION: U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx has introduced a bill that would requires U.S. Census takers to try to find out how many illegal immigrants are in the U.S. We're guessing some answers to that question might just not be truthful.

BILLIONS AND BILLIONS: The state lottery director wants to add another national super jackpot game to complement Powerball. The move would be the first step toward creating a near-nationwide big jackpot game that would appeal to those who think the Powerball odds are too fair.

BIG SPENDER: State Sen. R.C. Soles Jr., a Columbus County Democrat, spent the second most of any competitive candidate — more than $830,000 — to win his Senate seat last year. That was BEFORE he shot someone. No telling what the figure might be next time.

IN OTHER NEWS: Margaret Harper, who ran twice for lieutenant governor and was a pioneer among female political figures in North Carolina, died at 92. The Triangle region buys 40 percent of all lottery tickets sold in the state. The Attorney General won't appeal Superintendent June Atkinson's right to run the state school system.

Powerball and Mega Millions are similar lottery games that include several states. Here's a comparison.

THE GAME: In Powerball, players try to match six digits. Five white balls are drawn from a pool of balls, numbered one through 59. The sixth number, the Powerball is drawn from a pool of red balls numbered 1 through 39.

In Mega Millions, players choose five numbers from 1 through 56 and the sixth number from a separate pot of yellow "Mega" balls numbered 1 through 46.

THE PRIZES: In both games, jackpots are determined by ticket sales. Powerball has a minimum jackpot of $20 million, the value of a 30-year annuity purchased by the cash in the jackpot pool. Powerball awards much smaller cash prizes for matching various combinations of numbers. The lowest win is $3 for hitting the Powerball only.

The Mega Millions jackpot is also based on ticket sales and the value of a 26-year annuity. The lowest win in Mega Millions is $2 for hitting the yellow ball.

THE ODDS: The odds if hitting the Powerball jackpot are one in 195,249,054. The odds of hitting the Mega Millions jackpot are one in 175,711,53. To put that in perspective, of all the millions of Powerball tickets sold in the nation in a year, only about 13 hit the jackpot.

Adding a second, big jackpot lottery game to North Carolina would mean more players and more tickets sold, said lottery executive director Tom Shaheen.

Powerball sales spike when jackpots hit the hundreds of millions. Adding a second multi-state game, the Mega Millions, would likely mean that there's always one game with a big jackpot, Shaheen said. The current Mega Millions jackpot is $200 million and the Powerball jackpot is $30 million.

"The research is pretty clear that players have an interest in playing both games," Shaheen told Dome. "Whatever jackpot is bigger is the one they're going to run to."

The downside is that with more players playing each game, jackpots will hit more often, reducing the mega-huge jackpots that get so all the news media attention and spur sales.

Making Powerball and Mega Millions available in multiple states would also be a first step toward a national lottery game that is available in all 44 states with a lottery. That game would likely feature a $5 ticket and frequent huge jackpots.

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Is Mega Millions coming to a convenience store near you?

N.C. Education Lottery officials said today that lottery groups nationally are considering the potential of all U.S. lottery jurisdictions selling both Mega Millions and Powerball tickets.

On Oct. 7, Mega Millions and the Multi-State Lottery Association agreed in principle to begin the process for implementation as early as 2010, and to work toward the development of a national lottery game, with a possible launch date of fall 2010.

Players would be able to play for big jackpots more days of the week if the deal is done. Powerball drawings are held on Wednesday and Saturday nights. Mega Millions drawings are held on Tuesday and Friday nights.

The state lottery first joined Powerball in 2006 and has sold $793 million in Powerball tickets. North Carolina has had two Powerball jackpot winners.

The state Lottery Commission this morning agreed to a deal that would pave the way for vending machines that would sell instant games as well as Powerball tickets.

Currently, the lottery uses vending machines to sell instant tickets. The deal would allow the lottery to set up machines that would allow players to buy Powerball tickets as well as the games that draw three, four or five digits.

The machines are intended to help extend the lottery's presence into chain stores that have been reluctant to sell tickets. Stores such as CVS, Dollar General and Wal-Mart do not currently sell lottery tickets.

"They're asking to see a more convenient business model," said Lottery executive director Tom Shaheen.

Players who use the machines would have to insert a drivers license to prove they are 18. Shaheen said the machines dispense the same tickets that would otherwise be purchased behind a counter.

"These are not video machines. They're not interactive by any means," Shaheen told the commission Tuesday morning.

Buying the machines would have cost the state as much as $20 million. Instead the lottery will have them provided at no charge in exchange for extending by four years its contract with GTECH, the company that handles ticket printing and logistics for the state lottery.

More after the jump.

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North Carolina lottery director Tom Shaheen has been elected president of the multi-state association that runs the Powerball.

The Multi-State Lottery Association includes 32 lotteries. Shaheen will continue to run the North Carolina lottery. The multi state association establishes policies, oversees financial matters and approves new lotteries for membership.

Dome checked and is sure that Shaheen can't help anyone get an inside line on Powerball numbers.  

Before coming to North Carolina, Shaheen was the chief executive officer for the New Mexico Lottery Authority for over five years, and prior to that he was the executive vice president of operations and administration for the Georgia Lottery Corporation.

NOBODY LIKES NOBODY: The popularity recession has settled in for most N.C. politicians. Gov. Beverly Perdue, with basement-dwelling approval ratings less than six months into her first term, travelled the state to rally support from unimpressed teachers and Democrats. The raspberries are bipartisan: both U.S. Senators Kay Hagan and Richard Burr's numbers are down. President Barack Obama is slipping, and his policies are less popular than the man.

SPARE A FEW THOUSAND DIMES? One state resident isn't worried about layoffs. Jeff Wilson of Kings Mountain took home $29 million, after taxes, when his father gave him a Powerball ticket that hit the jackpot. (Gotta figure Wilson is apologizing for having ignored any past fatherly advice). We get this question a lot, so before you ask, the lottery can't fix the state's budget problems because it raises only a small fraction of the state's education spending and state law mandates lottery profits go to four specific programs.

PLASTICS, PESTERING AND POTTY TIPPING: The legislature has been on an outlawing binge. It has banned plastic bags on the coast, bullying in schools and vandalizing portable toilets.

IN OTHER NEWS: The state got most of its deposit money back for a private jet officials decided not to buy after all. A new film production tax credit would lose money for the state at first. And Obama does still occasionally smoke, but that's not why he signed into law sweeping new regulatory authority over cigarettes.

Jeff Wilson of Kings Mountain is the winner of the $88.1 million Powerball lottery jackpot.

He took the prize as a lump sum, and will receive about $29 million after taxes, Kevin Kiley reports.

Wilson, a 27-year-old who will attend graduate school next year, got the ticket from his father, who buys his children tickets every round. Wilson appeared at the North Carolina lottery office in Raleigh Tuesday to claim his prize.

He said he is interested in taking a vacation and possibly making a donation to a children's hospital.

He is the second jackpot winner since North Carolina joined the Powerball lottery in 2007.

The state lottery has $800,000 of someone else's money.

Lottery officials announced today that no one has claimed a winning Powerball ticket worth $800,000 that was purchased in Troutman for a drawing in October. The winner has until the end of the day on April 14 to claim their winnings.

If they don't, half of the money goes to education programs supported by lottery revenues and the other half goes back into prizes.