Twitter Followers to power jackpot of Online “Twitter Lotto”

A 23-year old marketing student at the Mount Royal University has setup an online lottery that is completely free to enter and the jackpot is powered by the number of followers to its Twitter account.

The site, twitterlotto.com, was originally a class project for Peter DanihelÂ's University course but after seeing a burst of popularity to the site heÂ's decided to see just how far it can go.

The jackpot is currently at $944.84 and the @twterlotto Twitter account has 521 followers – each time a new follower is added the jackpot increases by a couple of cents. The cash is coming from advertisers on the site and has reportedly drawn interest from sites such as Party Poker who are considering the venture.

The winner of the lotto is to be drawn on the 25th of December. Danihel is banking on his Twitter followers rapidly increasing between now and the draw to be able to deem the site a success.

Danihel said when asked about his intentions for Twitter Lotto Â"IÂ'm doing this because I want employers to look at me and take me serious and see that I can build something from the ground up, and maybe I can apply it to my own businessÂ".