It seems lottery ticket sales are loosely linked to the unemployment rate.

Windsor, Ont., has had Canada’s highest jobless rate for years. During roughly the same time period, the city has spent less than the provincial average on lottery tickets, according to Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation spokesperson Don Pister.

"The economic conditions may have had something to do with it,” he said of slumping local lottery sales.

Pister said people spend "discretionary income" on lottery tickets.

Pister said OLG measures sales on a scale of 1-100 and Windsor for the past three years has been below average.

However, Windsor’s unemployment rate has dropped 1.5 per cent since January, down from 10.9 per cent to 9.5 per cent in June.

“So far this year, we’ve seen a little recovery in sales [in Windsor],” Pister said. “Hopefully that continues through the end of the year.”

Friday OLG said the $100-million in total prize money up for grabs Friday night is the most to be won since Lotto Max launched in 2009.

Pister had no hard numbers of the total number of tickets sold for the draw. He said 25 per cent of sales for large jackpots occur late in the day of the draw.

He said he expected sales to pick up after work Friday.

Pister said OLG has spent additional advertising dollars promoting the massive jackpot.

If no one wins Friday’s $50-million main prize it will be offered up again next week and so will a number of other $1-million prizes .

“We’ll adjust our advertising budget as we go,” Pister said.