ROANOKE TIMES

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, July 16, 1990                   TAG: 9007160083
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Medium


LOTTO FEVER RISES

Lady Luck has passed by Virginia's lottery for the fourth straight week.

Since no one correctly matched all six numbers in Saturday night's Lotto drawing, the $11.4 million jackpot will roll over into a fifth week, lottery officials said. They estimated at least $16 million will be at stake in the next drawing Saturday, the biggest jackpot since the games began in January.

"We're breaking all kinds of records," said Paula Otto, a spokeswoman for the Virginia Lottery Department. "This is the first time we've gone four weeks without a winner."

The lottery also set a record for single-day ticket sales. Otto said 3.84 million tickets were sold across the state Saturday as players hoped to bring home the big prize.

She said 138 people won $1,751 each for matching five of the six numbers, and 8,717 won $59 for correctly picking four. The lottery also will give more than 147,000 people a free play for matching three of the six numbers.

The winning numbers were 5-8-22-24-43-44.

"We sold even more tickets than we thought we would," Otto said. At the peak of sales, between 7 p.m. and 8 p.m., vendors were doling out tickets at the rate of 6,000 per minute.

Lottery Director Kenneth W. Thorson said the huge jackpot likely will lure more out-of-state players to cross Virginia's boundaries for a shot at the big prize.

"This is certainly going to attract a lot of regional attention this week," he said.

Although a $16 million jackpot would be Virginia's biggest ever, it pales in comparison to the nation's record of $115.5 million, which was given away by the Pennsylvania Lottery in the spring of 1989.

Virginia's previous record was $8.6 million won by a Richmond family in May.



 by CNB