How many Mega Millions tickets Raising Cane’s bought and why

The Mega Millions lottery, whose first drawing was in 2002, is back and this year the current jackpot is at $1.28 billion, making it the second largest jackpot in the multi-jurisdictional game’s history.

How many Mega Millions tickets has Raising Cane’s bought

Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers, a Baton Rouge, Louisiana-based fast food company initially bought 50,000 Mega Millions tickets matching the company’s 50,000 employees, with the hopes of sharing the winnings among them. 

The company uploaded a video on TikTok after purchasing the tickets, captioning it “When Todd buys 50,000 lottery tickets to share the jackpot with all Crewmembers! ONE LOVE!”, referring to Todd Graves, current CEO, who helped lead the company since 1996. Graves also posted on Twitter, saying “Buying 50,000 lottery tickets is harder than you think! Hoping to share the winning jackpot with our 50,000 @RaisingCanes Crew.” 

However, they missed the jackpot, and have now bought another 50,000 tickets trying their luck for the second time. 

“Our crew members were so stoked the last time”, AJ Kumaran, co-CEO told The Washington Post. 

How much money has it cost Raising Cane’s

Raising Cane’s has had to pay $200,000 for the two rounds of tickets bought. Each time, they paid $100,000 for 50,000 tickets.

Also Read | Mega Millions jackpot: Who won the $1.05 billion prize in 2021?

“I don’t think of it as $100,000. It’s really $2 per crew member”, Kumaran told the Washington Post. 

Why is Raising Cane’s buying Mega Millions tickets for employees

Graves in the statement, as obtained by The Mercury News, said “As soon as we heard how big this jackpot prize is, we couldn’t miss out on the chance to win the Mega Millions jackpot and share it with our crew who always stand together”, adding, “None of what we do at Cane’s would be possible without our crew, which is why we are always looking for ways to bring them a little extra fun, and if we’re lucky, a surprise on Wednesday morning”. 

Also Read | Mega Millions jackpot: A look at top 5 lottery prizes ever won so far

Kumaran shared similar sentiments with CNN, saying, “Things aren’t exactly easy these days, so when we saw there is a chance to not only have a little fun, but maybe win a little bit extra money for our people, we wanted to do it”. 

The company is likely to stick to its earlier principle of keeping on buying tickets until someone wins the jackpot.