tonight on "nightline," and the winner is? $640 million up for grabs sparks a last minute mega-millions buying frenzy. we were there tonight as they drew the numbers. and we'll tell you all about what happened next. high school high. it's a drug that reportedly sent demi moore to rehab. >> she's convulsing. >> but she's not the only one. an alarming spike in teens getting high on whip-its. now that combination can have deadly c lly con consequences. and in-flight videos. does anyone like them?

treadmills? tonight, the latest wild viral trend. people posting videos of all the awful things that can happen on their least favorite exercise machine. >> announcer: from the global resources of abc news, with terry moran, cynthia mcfadden and bill weir in new york city, this is "nightline," march 30th, 2012. good evening, i'm terry more r moran. just a half hour ago, $640 million drawing, and late into the night, people were still lining up to buy a piece of the dream. in all, americans spent an estimated 1$1.5 billion in hopig to win. with the odds stack against them, it seems nearly everyone had a strategy, and abc's ryan owens has a day in the life of a jackpot-crazed nation. >> tonight's mega-millions jackpot is a world record $640 million. >> reporter: the nation held its

breath tonight. >> our first number tonight is -- >> reporter: waiting on those six little numbers that add up to so many hopes and end up dashing so many millions of dreams. >> 46, 23, 38, 4, 2 and the megaball is 23. >> reporter: with the biggest jackpot in history up for grabs, we spent the day crisscrossing the country to discover people's strategies to win it all. 6:00 a.m. in dallas. dawn of a dreamer's biggest day. this gas station is hopping. even as the long horning who live right next door are just waking up. >> five megamillions. >> good luck. >> reporter: keisha lions is wide awake and ready to win. >> i picked dates that are important to me. >> reporter: like? >> birthday, anniversary. date of divorce. >> reporter: 7:00 in times square. lottery's closest thing to a lucky charm, yolanda vega --

>> welcome to "good morning america's" megamania. >> reporter: is whipping up a frenzy as she wakes up the nation on "gma." >> new yorkers are going crazy. everywhere i go, people are asking me for the winning numbers, asking to rub my arm for some luck. >> reporter: 10:00 a.m. in california. cavanaugh's liquors is the luckiest place in the golden state. the store has sold four mega-millions winners in the past few years. more than any other place. >> i heard about the luck that the store produces. >> reporter: the superstitious come from hours away, believing their best shot at $640 million is right here. >> i am feeling lucky. there's a lot of good mojo here. >> i drove 60 miles to get here. >> reporter: by mid-day, there's reason for optimism. a lottery official says there's a 95% chance someone will win tonight. experts say that's because so many numbers have been picked. every possible combination has

likely been exhausted. >> basically like throwing darlts at the wall where everyone scribbled their name on there. if they hit your name, you win. the more names are on that wall, the more likely that the dart hits a name. >> reporter: at high noon, four costume makers at the dallas theater center are confident they've stitched together the perfect office pool. >> currently the keeper of the tickets. >> reporter: they bought more than $100 worth. they actually have a winning record. a few years ago, this group won a grand total of $1 each. their coworkers weren't impressed. >> a couple of people weren't interested. that's okay. $500 million is so easy to split four ways. >> reporter: for that money, you could buy the hope diamond. it's a mere $350 million. or a million shares of apple stock. or two of the world's most expensive yachts. or you could purchase two william shatners. he's worth $300 million.

it's not clear why you'd want to. 1:00 p.m. newport beach, california. dan is buying another 100 tickets to add to his three online lottery pool. he uses ad revenue to buy the tickets. if he wins, he takes 10%. the 1600 other members of the site share the rest. >> $7. >> reporter: all afternoon, from seattle -- >> $1. >> reporter: to chicago -- >> buy three 50/50. >> reporter: to atlanta, they eagerly handed over cash and bragged about what they'd do as america's newest half billionaire. >> i will retire. >> travel. >> reporter: so, how did the jackpot get this big? well, ask marsha adams. the georgia woman is the last person to win mega-millions. she took home a check for $72 million, all the way back on january 24th. since then, there have been 18

drawings with no winners. each time, the jackpot grew into what's now the largest in the history of the world. 6:00 p.m. on the nevada/california border. people have been waiting in line for hours to buy tickets at this store. nevada, yes, the home of las vegas, where you can bet on anything, does not allow the lottery. it's actually one of eight states where people are out of luck if they want to play megamillime mega-millions. maybe they are better off. the chance of winning is 1 in 176 million. since nearly all of us are losers tonight, maybe these numbers are help us feel better. you are more likely to be possessed by the devil today than win the mega-millions. in fact, the odds are better that lots of bad things might happen to you today. getting hit by an asteroid or being devoured by a flsesh-eatig bacteria. yes, somebody really came up with those odds.

8:00 p.m. as darkness falls on that dallas gas station, hundreds of late comers poured in with just hours to spare. >> i played them. we'll see what happens. >> reporter: those longhorns next door are set. ing in for another night. their life won't be much different tomorrow. and odds are, neither will yours. i'm ryan owens for "nightline" in dallas. >> still waiting on word of winner. coming up next, it was reportedly demi moore's cheap high. they're called whip-its. whipped cream canisters that can have deadly results. e emotional here? aren't you getting a little industrial? okay, there's enough energy right here in america. yeah, over 100 years worth. okay, so you mean you just ignore the environment. actually, it's cleaner. and, it provides jobs. and it helps our economy. okay, i'm listening. [announcer] at conoco phillips we're helping power america's economy with cleaner affordable natural gas...

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>> announcer: "nightline" continues from new york city with terry moran.

when demi moore's recent public meltdown was splashed across public tabloids, one of the most alarming details was the reported use of whip-its. turns out it's now the most used inhalant in the country with nearly half of a million new users each year. abc's brian ross has the story. brian? >> reporter: terry, this is a story about the unlikely combination of whipped cream, balloons and getting high. but it's something well known to a growing number of americans -- including reportedly some famous ones. but they may not know just mow dangerous it can be. >> this is an emergency. >> ma'am, ma'am -- >> reporter: hollywood celebrities can always be counted on to self-destruct in the trendiest of ways. >> is she breathing? >> yes. >> and she overdosed on -- >> she's convulsing. >> reporter: she was demi moore. and when her friends called 911 two months ago, moore had smoked

synthetic marijuana and reportedly used something else that caused the deep current. >> we're holding her down. >> reporter: the something else reportedly was nitrous oxide gas, what is found in these tiny containers called whip-its, because their stated legal use is to make whipped cream. in the human body, enough of the gas can deprive the brain of oxygen. >> fall down, they have a lot of muscle spasm. they can be twitching, rolling around. it can go into a seizure. >> reporter: an estimated 12 million americans have used some form of whip-its. this amateur footage was made outside a new york rock concert, where local residents said hundreds of people were buying yellow balloons full of the gas. >> you can't hang out here, i'm calling the cops. >> it was an organized retail outlet for nitrous oxide. >> reporter: for some of the new breed of whip-it users, it's

just a hoot. so unconcerned, they posted videos of themselves using it on youtube, complete with background music. these two young florida men used actual whipping cream cans from a store, telling abc news it was a one-time experiment. these geniuses were seen whipping it up in an office setting. but while nitrous oxide may seem hilarious or calming to its users, there are real mental and very serious physical risks, according to leading substance abuse experts. >> what you're concerned about is affects on their nervous system, their organ system. >> reporter: debbie goldman knows that all too well. >> i started to think i had a problem when i woke up one morning and i couldn't walk. >> reporter: goldman says she started using whip-its in

college and law school and continues through her years at one of the country's leading law firms, to reduce the stress, she says. >> i just liked the way it made me feel. i didn't feel like i was doing anything wrong. i could get it anywhere. >> reporter: going through ten boxes of the tiny containers every night, 24 to the box. you would do 240 of those in a day? >> yeah, yeah. >> reporter: why so many? >> it was very relaxes. my neurologist told me i was very, very lucky that i didn't die from that. >> reporter: 18-year-old melissa of suburban phoenix was not so lucky. national honor society student in high school, she died after using whip of its and ecstasy pills just two weeks before he scheduled graduation. >> how do you go from planning a party for your kid, for graduati graduation, to a funeral? >> reporter: her parents, mario

and kristy, and her sister, alyssa, say they had never heard of whip-its before melissa's death. >> what did we do wrong? why didn't we see this danger? >> one decision can change their lives and their family's lives forever. >> reporter: the sales of the whip-its seem to be booming on the internet. we bought box loads online. no questions asked about age or what they'd be used for. >> if you see a son our daughter buys loads of whipped cream and they don't have a cake, you got a problem. >> reporter: it's illegal in many places to sell the whip-its for human consumption. >> brian ross, abc news. but it is a law that is rarely enforced. the people that run this smoke shop near the abc news offices claim to have no idea why their customers were buying so many whipped cream canisters. >> what are they for? >> reporter: for food? is this now a kitchen supply

store? you know what these are for, don't you? >> no. >> reporter: the kinds use them to get high. you know that. >> we don't do that. >> reporter: then the store manager said he would remove the remaining whip-its from the shelves so no one else could buy any. >> the danger is not just in alcohol, it's not in maifrrijua the meth, the cocaine. it's in your house. it's in a can of whipped cream. >> reporter: short of outlawing whipped cream or balloons, drug treatment experts say they are hoping to get the word out about the potential dangers. but the story of addiction, celebrity overdoses and the tragic deaths. terry? >> thank you, brian. great reporting there. coming up next, the xerp size machines we love to hate. treadmills began as an instrument for punishment. to me, weany, well, they still . what's the matter?

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well, there's one thing a lot of us struggle with, it's finding the motivation to get to the gym and jump on that treadmill. probably the most iconic piece of exercise equipment and perhaps the most loathed, as well. as it turns out, we love watching other people run on the treadmill -- and fall off. here's abc's david wright. ♪ here it goes again >> reporter: remember that huge little popular video from the group okay go? where the band dances on treadmills? ♪ well, it turns out it's just as riveting to watch people who aren't quite so dexterous. there's a new viral video to prove it. the activity of running without actually going anywhere is absurd enough. but when the technology turns on

us, takes us somewhere we never expected to go, it's funny. it just is. >> big laugh and applause. >> reporter: tv producer vindy bona is an expert at this kind of humor. in a way, you were youtube before there was youtube. >> exactly. >> reporter: he's made a very good living with clips like this. at afv" they get lots of treadmill mishaps. >> there's nothing funnier than seeing your grandmother slip on a banana peel. as long as she's safe. >> reporter: exactly. as long as she gets up. not just grand ma. it works just as well with curious cats. >> he's going to hurt himself. >> reporter: and dopey dogs. one guy performs an experiment with a shrimp. animal kingdom is how treadmills got their start in the 19th century. the british soon discovered

treadmills could be an effective form of punishment. the notion of victorian punishment as exercise for chubby hamsters and humans came about in the 1960s. nasa helped pioneer it. not just like astronauts can throw open the hatch and go for a run. they don't have the to worry about the force of gravity like that guy. >> and there is no glory in going down on a piece of gym equipment. >> reporter: on come dill essenticomedy central, there was a whole riff. >> the guy on the stairmaster next to you would not stop his workout to help you up. he'd just be like, oh, no, we got a problem in here. somebody get in here. we got a problem! i can't stop. i just got started on this machine. >> reporter: maybe he's just too busy filming. i'm david wright for "nightline" in los angeles. >> face plant. thank you for watching abc news. hope you check in for "good