ATLANTA -- Would-be millionaires around the country scrambled for tickets Friday for the $230 million Mega Millions jackpot -- the largest jackpot in that lottery's history.

Friday's huge jackpot, which will be awarded on a live broadcast from New York's Times Square at 11 p.m. on WSB-TV/Channel 2 immediately before the Channel 2 Action News Nightbeat, led to higher ticket sales, despite the dismal chances of landing the winning ticket. The odds of winning the jackpot were one in 135,145,920, according the Mega Millions Web site.

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In Georgia alone, more than $1 million in Mega Millions tickets were sold Friday before noon, said J.B. Landroche, spokesman for the Georgia Lottery. And that was before the peak time for ticket sales, which is in the evening, he said.

The huge 11-state jackpot led to higher ticket sales, despite the bleak odds of winning Friday's jackpot -- one in 135,145,920, according to the Mega Millions Web site.

By midafternoon Friday, ticket sales in New Jersey had reached 500,000 per hour, said Virginia Bauer, executive director of the state lottery.

"It's amazing, the fever has started," she said.

About $50 million worth of tickets had been sold in New Jersey on Friday, Bauer said.

In Ohio, 9,292 tickets were being sold each minute, said Mardele Cohen, spokeswoman for the Ohio Lottery

"It's a chance to get something you don't have," said Minnie Young, 65, of Dayton, Ohio, who bought five Mega Millions tickets. "Somebody's got to win. Why not me? I've got four sisters. I could give them the money too."

Lisa McGee, a lottery ticket saleswoman at a Detroit Rite Aid store, said her first sale of the day was for $102.

"They are coming in buying them $100 and $200 at a time," McGee said Friday afternoon. "It's only going to get worse."

In Chicago, Emilio Cundari said he normally spends about $10 a week on lottery tickets, but for Friday's Mega Millions drawing he bought $20 worth of tickets at a downtown convenience store.

"I feel my chances are pretty good," Cundari said. "And if I win, I'll buy an NFL team."

Lorine Clark of Hillside, Ill., bought tickets for herself and several co-workers Friday afternoon. Clark, who won $500 playing the lottery about 10 years ago, said she believes her chances for the jackpot are good.

"Of course I'm going to win. You have to think that way," she said. "If you believe it, hopefully it will come true."

The drawing was scheduled for 11 p.m. Friday night at New York City's Times Square.

The drawing for Mega Millions is usually held at the WSB-TV/Channel 2 studios in Midtown Atlanta. But lottery officials had been waiting for a high jackpot to hold the drawing in Times Square, Landroche said.

ABC affiliate television stations in the states that have the contest will carry the drawing live. If no one wins Friday's jackpot, the drawing will continue to be held in Times Square until there is a winner, Landroche said.

Buying two tickets Friday morning at Jimbo's, a convenience store across the street from the University of Georgia campus, student Cassie Kourelis said she had big plans if she won.

"I'm going to get my mom back home with me, finish paying off college here, probably move away to some nice island where it's warm," she said.

Lines of ticket buyers have been forming the past few days during lunch time and the early evening hours, Athens, Ga., convenience store owners and cashiers said.

But Naeem Jabaid, a Quick Pantry cashier, said his customers were mostly buying small amounts of tickets.

"They are calm. They're not buying like they used to buy -- a hundred, a hundred, a hundred," he said.

The Mega Millions lottery began in May 2002. States participating in the game are: Georgia, Virginia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Texas and Washington.

In Georgia, lottery officials said the huge jackpot is good for the game, its players and the state.

"A record-breaking Mega Millions jackpot is great for lottery players and retailers," said Margaret DeFrancisco, president and chief executive officer of the Georgia Lottery. "It's also wonderful to know that every dollar raised will benefit lottery-funded educational programs in Georgia."

Georgia uses part of its lottery proceeds to fund the HOPE scholarship, which is benefiting from the extra money that is pouring into lottery coffers by players trying to win.

Most of the state's lottery money gets paid out in cash prizes. But about a third goes back to education programs, including the HOPE scholarship.

"When we have a sales increase, that does mean more dollars returned to education," said J.B. Landroche, spokesman for the Georgia Lottery.

But even if the jackpot broke the $363 million all-time record, that wouldn't be near enough to save the scholarship from needed adjustments, lawmakers and officials said. The HOPE scholarship program gives free in-state college tuition to students with a B grade average.

The HOPE scholarship is expected to run short on cash in 2007, said Jim Ledbetter, head of the University of Georgia's Carl Vinson Institute of Government, which has studied HOPE's finances.

"In the long run, the state has to do something," Ledbetter said. "If you do nothing, even with 3 or 5 percent revenue growth you experience problems fairly quickly."

That's because spending on HOPE has steadily grown since its start in 1992 as standards were gradually relaxed and more students qualified, said Democratic Rep. Louise McBee, a retired professor from Athens who heads a committee trying to find ways to keep HOPE afloat.

Proposals for cutting back on HOPE include eliminating student grants for books and fees, and making it academically tougher for students to qualify for the scholarship.

"There's some excitement about the fact that the lottery has continued to increase," McBee said. "It won't solve the problem. We're going to have to do something."

It's difficult to calculate how much lottery money from this jackpot will go to college scholarships because Mega Millions revenue comes from 11 states and ticket sales are ongoing, Landroche said.

The lottery has brought in record proceeds for educational programs through the first six months of this fiscal year -- $376 million, which is $24 million more than the lottery gave to education the first six months of last year, he said.

Lottery officials said the games have returned over $6 billion to the state for educational initiatives, including Georgia's pre-kindergarten programs, the HOPE scholarship and a wide range of technological and capital upgrades for the state's schools, technical institutes, colleges, universities and public libraries.

wsbtv.com staff writer Alfred Charles contributed to this report.