LOTTERY FEVER COSTING SOMEONE $1.5 MILLION

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

DATE: SATURDAY, February 15, 1992                   TAG: 9202150301
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By Associated Press
DATELINE: NORFOLK                                LENGTH: Short
LOTTERY FEVER COSTING SOMEONE $1.5 MILLION
An unidentified group of people is using a convenience-store chain to handle its purchase of $1.5 million worth of tickets for today's $25 million Virginia Lottery Lotto drawing.
Machines at 23 Uni-Marts had been cranking out tickets since 9 a.m. Thursday, the chain's Lillian Laird told The Virginian-Pilot and The Ledger-Star on Friday.
She said the stores would not finish processing the order until today.
"You're talking about giving those ticket machines a beating," said Laird, assistant supervisor of the company's lottery department.
Uni-Mart officials declined to identify the group. They would not say whether the players were from Virginia or out of state.
The top prize for today's Virginia Lotto drawing is the largest in the country this weekend.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB