The odds of winning $1 million in the Florida Lottery's Holiday Millionaire Raffle are so good an illegal market for scalping the sold-out tickets popped up online this week as eBay sellers attempted to auction off the tickets for hundreds, even thousands of dollars above their original $20 price.

But don't bother trying to buy one. Lottery officials said Wednesday they plan to go after anyone who violates state law by buying or selling the tickets, and eBay officials were removing any of the offending listings they find.

"These people are messing with the integrity of our agency," Florida Lottery spokeswoman Leslie Steele said. "Our security office is working closely with eBay, and if those individuals are identified, we will prosecute them to the full extent of the law."

The law classifies both selling and buying a Florida Lottery ticket through anyone but a state-authorized agent as a first-degree misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of up to $1,000or a year in jail.

The state also does not honor winning tickets bought illegally.

The law is meant to discourage lottery counterfeiting and scams.

Just 1,250,000 of the Holiday Millionaire Raffle tickets were put on the market, and they sold out in a mere 11 days -- a phenomenon Steele called unprecedented.

The raffle will be held on New Year's Day, with 10 new millionaires chosen. The odds of winning $1 million stand at 1 in 125,000, the best ever offered, she said.

Some digitally clandestine deals for the tickets were made before eBay and the state caught on. A Clearwater seller was able to sell three tickets in minutes. One sold for $54.95 in less than nine minutes. The other two sold for $49.95 apiece to one buyer -- one in 11 minutes and the other in 27 minutes.

Less successful was someone in Gainesville, who had received a high bid of $300 when eBay moved to shut the auction down. A Clearwater seller asked for $65, according to one of several eBay listings that have since been removed. Another from Daytona Beach -- in an apparent attempt to get around the law -- offered to sell a "Florida Millionaire Raffle Mystery Bag" with 17 tickets inside for a "Buy-It-Now price" of $100,000.

"This auction is for the bag only," the seller stressed, posting a photograph of a cheap brown paper bag and several tickets. "The (17) Raffle tickets is a GIFT FROM ME TO YOU!!!!"

One seller in Miami said she never intended to break the law -- that she was just trying to have a little fun. Jewelry seller Martina Bolano bought 15 raffle tickets last week, then decided to give 10 of the tickets away to the first customers to buy jewelry from her online. She said she didn't think she was doing anything illegal because she wasn't selling the tickets, just offering them as a bonus gift.

"The idea was simple," Bolano recalls. "To create a little buzz."

The idea worked -- but not the way she thought. On Wednesday, Bolano says she got a call from eBay ordering her to take down the offer. She promised to quickly comply and now considers the matter closed.

And what will Bolano do now with the 15 sought-after tickets?

Keep one, she said, and give the others away to "family, friends and a couple of grocery store cashiers I know who are nice, hardworking people."

"You never know. Lady Luck kisses you regardless of whether you have one ticket or 15," she said breezily. "If it's meant to be, it's meant to be."