ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Wednesday, June 12, 1996               TAG: 9606120045
SECTION: VIRGINIA                 PAGE: C-1  EDITION: METRO 
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: Associated Press 

VIRGINIA TO PLAY `GAME' NEW LOTTERY COULD SURPASS $50 MILLION

Virginia and four other states on Tuesday announced plans to begin a multistate lottery called ``The Big Game'' in September.

The new game, which also includes Michigan, Illinois, Massachusetts and Maryland, will have drawings every Friday night beginning Sept. 6. Jackpots that start at $4million could exceed $50million, officials said.

In Virginia, where players seeking huge prizes have traveled to Kentucky, West Virginia and the District of Columbia to play the 21-jurisdiction Powerball game, the game is expected to satisfy the need for bigger prizes.

``It will bring in some of those bench warmers who tell us they never play until the jackpot gets high,'' said Virginia Lottery spokeswoman Paula Otto.

The game will cost $1 to play and offer nine ways to win. Players will select five numbers from 1 to 50 from one pool and one number from 1 to 25 from another pool. Besides the jackpot, earned by matching all six numbers, it will offer prizes ranging from $150,000 to $1 for combinations of numbers.

The odds of winning a prize are 1 in 22.4, officials said. The odds for the jackpot are 1 in 53million.

Penelope Kyle, director of the Virginia Lottery, joined officials from the four other states at a Chicago news conference to unveil the game.

She said adding a multistate game to Virginia's current offering was in keeping with the natural growth of all state lotteries.

The Big Game, she said, is expected to cost less than $50,000 to implement here and add about $25million to the state's lottery revenues.

In the current fiscal year, which ends June 30, the lottery hopes to turn over $314million to the general fund, Kyle said. All of the money is earmarked for education, she said.

One casualty of the new game could be Lotto, a twice-weekly game that offers a jackpot beginning at $1million, the highest offered in Virginia.

``Somewhere down the road, we may have to drop back to a one-night-a-week Lotto drawing, but we're not willing to concede even that yet,'' Kyle said.

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