Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, July 15, 1990 TAG: 9007150252
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: E1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CHRISTINA A. SAMUELS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Inside, a line of people, wet from the rainstorms that doused the Roanoke area Saturday, waited silently and clutched pieces of paper potentially worth millions of dollars.
The people were there to play Virginia Lotto, and no little torrential downpours were going to keep them from trying to win a jackpot estimated at $11 million.
Lenwood Alston, an employee at Stop-In, said a lot of people have been coming in at the last minute. He also said that many of the regular lottery players were buying more tickets than usual in an attempt to strike it rich.
"Reaching that magic $10 million mark has made a difference," lottery spokeswoman Paula Otto said Thursday, when sales hit a record for that day of the week. Since then, however, record sales have pushed the lottery jackpot up even higher.
"Most people are buying $3, $4, $5 at a time," Otto said. "People are spending more this week than they usually would."
The 25th drawing, held Saturday, is for the highest cash prize awarded since the game started in January. The previous record was $8.6 million won by a Richmond family in May. The lottery has been without a winner for four weeks.
Lottery officials said that if no winner emerged this week, next week's prize would be in the $16 million range.
Otto said the highest retailers are located along Virginia's borders with Tennessee and North Carolina, which don't have lotteries, but you couldn't tell that to Claude Ferguson, one of the owners of the Sav-A-Lot Supermarket on Patterson Avenue.
Though the store was a little less crowded than the Stop-In, Ferguson said he sold as many lottery tickets Saturday as he sold all of last week.
"We've had people bringing in nickels, dimes, pennies . . . digging into their piggy banks," said Ferguson, who played the game himself this week.
Although the chance of winning the lottery is one in 7 million, Otto said there have been more winners than anticipated - nine in the 25 weeks Lotto has existed. Lottery officials said they expected to see a winner every three or four weeks in the contest.
Many people Saturday were hoping to be the 10th new millionaire.
The methods used for picking numbers ranged from the ordinary computer-picked method to the more interesting, like Gwen Basham's. She uses the numbers her sons wear on their basketball and football uniforms. "My son thought of that," Basham said.
Clara Dennis was playing $2 at the Stop-In, where she plays every week. She said she's endured criticism from members of her church who say she's wasting her money, but she considers smoking to be as bad a vice.
"Don't talk to me about playing my two dollars a week if you smoke those cancer sticks," said Dennis, who figures out a combination of numbers based on the birthdays of family members.
"Somebody's got to win; it might as well be me," said Kevin Sayles, who bought two tickets at the Sav-A-Lot Supermarket.
The ticket buyers' plans for the money, which will be paid over 20 years, usually included quitting a job, traveling and buying new cars or houses. Glen Calloway, who played at the Stop-In, had slightly different plans.
"Ten percent goes to my Lord," Calloway said. "The rest goes to me," his young daughter added.
by CNB