The mega millions jackpot could become the mega billions jackpot if someone doesn't pick the right numbers soon. As a scratch-off player interested only in seeing the number increase, I'll follow the influx of media coverage surrounding tonight's drawing and play my part in the race to a billion. Here's to stirring the pot and for the chance to see non-luck prevail so that an extreme pay day eventually (eventually!) will.

As of Tuesday, the pot is at $636 million, just $20 million off the all-time record, according to USA Today. At that level, the number becomes, in a way, both a positive and a negative feedback mechanism. More media coverage and the chance to win greater sums of money drive an increasing number of people to purchase tickets. (When the pot was at a record $656 million in 2012, citizens were buying tickets at a rate of 26 million per hour the day of the drawing, according to USA Today). Yet, the more people who buy numbers, the greater the chance the right combinations will be chosen.

Complete figures aren't in yet, but according to one 7-11 owner's analysis to nj.com, "They're buying like crazy."

The huge pot was expected given the lottery's new format, enacted earlier this year and designed to build higher pots and more lower-level winners. The five numbers chosen before the mega millions number now range from 1-75 instead of 1-56, but the mega millions number only goes from 1-15 instead of 1-46. Simply matching the mega millions number earns customers their dollars back. The new format increases the odds of winning the biggest pot from 1 in 175 million to 1 in 259 million, according to USA Today.

"There are two ways to get bigger jackpots," Virginia Lottery executive director Paula Otto told the Daily Press. "You can increase the price, which is what the Powerball game did, but we found in our research that players like the dollar price. So to keep the game at a dollar and still get bigger jackpots, we changed the matrix of how you play."

If the pot doesn't fall tonight, it could reach a billion by next drawing: Christmas Eve.