ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, March 11, 1996 TAG: 9603110056
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press RICHMOND
Virginia Lottery enthusiasts can track their numbers via home computer using InterLotto, an Internet site that features results of 140 games in 40 lotteries in the United States and Canada.
The Virginia Lottery is supplying its game data to InterLotto so players can check numbers online.
``There are three services people like on the Internet: chat, games and sex,'' said Tony Cooper, InterLotto's managing director. ``We're not going to offer sex, but we offer limited chat and games.''
The site tries to have results on-line within 30 minutes of a drawing.
Players can search a database of Virginia's Cash 5 and Lotto numbers to see whether they have been winners this year. They also can send electronic mail directly to the Virginia Lottery.
A click gives answers to frequently asked questions about the Virginia Lottery, including what happens if you accidentally lose a winning ticket. According to lottery officials, you're out of luck if you don't find it.
InterLotto was founded on the World Wide Web in August by Internet Systems Applications in Washington. Cooper, the managing director, was director of the District of Columbia's lottery from 1991 to 1995.
Cooper said the service is popular with travelers and with people who want to look up results.
``They may have an Ohio lottery ticket, but they don't have an Ohio newspaper,'' he said.
InterLotto is developing a page for the Virginia Lottery, with its own Internet address. The site is expected to become available by next month.
InterLotto hopes to make money by selling ads and sponsorships for the pages. The Virginia Lottery neither charges nor gets paid for the relationship.
Ed Scarborough, a spokesman for the Virginia Lottery, said the agency chose to work with InterLotto because the company understood the promotional restrictions that state legislators put on the lottery.
``We didn't want any 900 numbers or psychic predictions,'' he said.
Even with the new cyberdata, players can't replace pure luck. In the more than 500 drawings since Lotto began in 1990, Scarborough said, the same six numbers have never come up twice.
The Virginia Lottery Home Page can be found on InterLotto, a private service, at http://www.interlotto.com
LENGTH: Medium: 51 linesby CNB