Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, July 8, 1994 TAG: 9407080079
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER NOTE: below
DATELINE: LENGTH: Short
Virginia Lottery players have made 1016 a sellout number the past four days. Players apparently are betting that the misfortune of USAir Flight 1016, which crashed Saturday in Charlotte, N.C., will bring them riches.
The number has sold out since Monday.
Lottery spokeswoman Cherie Phaup said the number had not been inordinately popular before the crash.
"We don't normally have sellouts on Pick 4," Phaup said.
The lottery sets liability limits on the daily Pick 3 and Pick 4 drawings so it doesn't have to pay out more than three times what it takes in on a game in a week.
"I don't know why they want to play that number," said Ruby Linkous, a clerk at the Food Time store on Radford Street in Christiansburg.
But "death" numbers are popular with players, Phaup and Linkous said.
"Triple 6's are very popular, because that's the devil number," Phaup said.
And Linkous has customers who "play whatever the room number is when someone is in the hospital," or they play the date of a loved one's death.
Linkous said a man told her Wednesday he wanted to play 1016 because of the crash. He settled for an "any order" ticket when he was told that 1016 had sold out.
A $1, exact-order bet on 1016 would pay $5,000. An any-order bet would pay $400, and a 50/50 ticket would pay $2,700.
This month, the lottery is doubling Pick 4 prizes if a green ball is drawn. So, 1016 could mean $10,000 each to those players who bought their exact-order tickets before the number sold out.
by CNB