DATE: Thursday, August 28, 1997             TAG: 9708280548

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: STAFF REPORT 

                                            LENGTH:  108 lines

LOTTO PLAYERS DREAM OF WEALTH AND FORTUNE HOPES WERE HIGH AS LOCALS BOUGHT TICKETS.

Folks turned dollars into numbers at area convenience shops Wednesday, with the slim hope they might cash in on a Virginia State Lottery jackpot of more than $26 million.

An air-powered Lotto machine pushed six white balls through waiting tubes, and the numeric sequence from which dreams may well be made was revealed on the 11 p.m. news.

Lottery spokeswoman Cherie B. Phaup said this jackpot is the longest ``roll-over'' without a winner in the Lottery's history. In the past two weeks, sales have increased with the promise of a huge payoff. And it may not be over.

``Should we go without a winner tonight,'' Phaup said, ``we will most likely beat the record jackpot by Saturday.''

That record, set five years ago, is $28.4 million.

Throughout Hampton Roads, everyday folks - tickets tucked safely away - hoped the fickle finger of fate would poke them squarely in the wallet.

At the Chesapeake 7-Eleven on the corner of Ballahack Road and Battlefield Boulevard, there was so much traffic you'd think they were giving away millions on the spot.

``Well, I hope we are,'' clerk Annie Harper said as she eyed a line of 20 lottery hopefuls. ``It would be great if we had a $28 million winner.''

Harper said the huge jackpot has reeled in players from North Carolina - Tar Heels such as Laurie and Michael Montiel, who drove north from the Outer Banks to purchase 15 tickets.

Most buyers Harper dealt with dropped $5 to $20 for a shot at the gold ring. Other high-rollers spent up to $200.

The influx of people also gave Big Gulp sales a boost, she said.

During lunch at the Norfolk eatery Charlie's, few customers were without coffee, conversation or tickets.

Michael and Greta Bates, who respectively teach science and math at Maury High School, have been playing for the past two weeks. They had three tickets for last night's drawing. One set was a combination of birthdays. One was from a fortune cookie they got three weeks ago.

The Bateses met on the job and fell in love. Three months ago, they married. Greta, 37, took her 33-year-old groom for his first sail on their honeymoon in Florida. Sitting in black high-back stools at the light green Charlie's lunch counter, the couple imagined wealth.

They might get back to Florida.

``That would be something to do with part of the jackpot,'' Greta said.

Not that they would give up academia.

``It would be nice to set up a school ship,'' Michael suggested. ``One that wouldn't sink.''

At a Portsmouth 7-Eleven, this one at London Boulevard and Effingham in Portsmouth, United Parcel Service delivery driver Aaron Stephens hoped the lucky numbers hold-out would end, that he would strike it rich, that the lottery might deliver him a timely fortune.

Stephens, 31, stopped to grab an afternoon bite to eat - and play $10 worth of tickets.

``I like to play my birthday - 9 and 25,'' Stephens said. ``And good years - like if I had a good year when I was 26, I'll play 26.''

The first thing he would buy is a new home and car for his mother, he said. And he would keep his job at UPS, Stephens added.

``I think that you need work to appreciate your time off,'' he said.

In Suffolk, the line grew longer by the register in the Wilco on Holland Road, and Charles Jackson grinned. No need to waste your money trying for the winning ticket, he told a man in line.

``I've got it,'' said Jackson, a Wilco employee, as he arranged a soft drink display. ``It's at home in my safe.''

His nickname is ``Happy Jack.'' If he won, he would really live up to it.

``I would need something to cool me down.''

He spends $2 a week, only playing Pick 6. He said it's his turn.

``I think everybody is excited,'' he said. ``Why can't it be me if anybody else?''

Happy Jack would come to work one more day, turn in his resignation and share his good fortune with co-workers.

``After that, it's `bye-bye' to everybody,'' he said.

In Virginia Beach, not far from Mount Trashmore, Sandi Barkan bought 33 chances at one of Hampton Roads' other 7-Elevens.

Barkan, 47, plays Lotto a lot. She plays the weekly Big Game. She sends $2 to pals in Kentucky, who play her numbers for her there though she left her bluegrass roots in Floyd County back in the 1960s.

``I've lived here a long time, but my heart's still in Kentucky,'' she said.

Thirty-three is a lot, she admits, but she played this many times for good reason. There were her numbers, then numbers suggested to her by friends. Sometimes your friends give you good luck, she explained. She had to play all their numbers.

If she hits it big, she will take her friends here, and about 12 folks she talks to on the Internet, out to sea for a big cruise.

``And I have to take my family,'' she said. ``Can't leave them home, you know. I figure if you win you have enough to share.''

Then she will build a house in her much-loved Kentucky mountains. MEMO: Staff writers Rebecca Myers Cutchins, John-Henry Doucette, Alexis

Smith, Susan Smith and Susie Stoughton contributed to this story. ILLUSTRATION: 11-19-22-36-37-40

UPS driver Aaron Stephens had big plans for the jackpot. He said

he'd buy a new car and home for his mother.

MARK MITCHELL/The Virginian-Pilot

Trying his luck at the Lotto prize, James Guest fills out lottery

slips at the 7-Eleven on London Boulevard in Portsmouth.

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