The MegaMillions drawing Tuesday, Jan. 12, paid out $615 million to the winner — if there was one.

The odds of any one ticket holder winning it was one in 302 million, but the odds of winning any of the Mega Millions prizes was one in 24.

Who hasn’t been in a hurry to buy something at a convenience store and gotten behind someone taking their time and sampling the many lottery products available?

Or gone to any of the greyhound tracks which were readily available to take vacationers’ cash on trips to Florida?

I grew up in Memphis, Tennessee, in a state in which gambling was illegal. Just over the Mississippi River, in West Memphis, Arkansas, Southland Greyhound Park was happy to take Tennesseeans’ money.