DATE: Tuesday, March 18, 1997               TAG: 9703180293

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY TONY WHARTON, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: NEWPORT NEWS                      LENGTH:   48 lines

WHAT A MISTAKE! NOT 1 WINNING LOTTERY TICKET, BUT 6

Murphy's Law says that when something can go wrong, it will.

James H. Murphy's law says that when something goes wrong, he and five other people each net $102,000.

Murphy, a Newport News retiree, spread some Irish luck this weekend. One of six tickets mistakenly printed for him at a 7-Eleven won him $150,000 - $102,000 after taxes - and the other five tickets made up to five other people winners as well.

``I'm just glad I won what I won,'' said Murphy, 67. ``I played the numbers we've been playing all along.

``I hope the other people who won will be able to enjoy the prize money as much as we will. I guess we made a lot of other people happy, too.''

The tickets were sold last week by a 7-Eleven at 13400 Jefferson Ave. in Newport News.

Virginia Lottery spokesman Ed Scarborough said he cannot recall six winning tickets of this size at one retailer before.

This lucky fluke is a combination of the rules of the Big Game, a multi-state lottery drawing, and the superstition of lottery players.

Murphy stopped at the 7-Eleven to buy tickets for the Big Game jackpot of $34 million. Murphy wanted to play his numbers over the next six drawings, but the clerk mistakenly printed six tickets for Friday's drawing only.

Murphy pointed out the mistake, and the 7-Eleven manager printed the appropriate tickets for that drawing and the next five.

But the five mistakenly printed tickets, which Murphy didn't buy, weren't canceled or thrown away. Although the Virginia Lottery usually cancels tickets printed by mistake, the rules of the Big Game say clerks can't cancel those.

``Some retailers will have a fishbowl they'll throw those tickets into,'' Scarborough said. ``People buy them because they think mistake tickets are lucky, which they were in this case.''

This time, Murphy's ticket matched five of the six numbers drawn in the Big Game. No one won the jackpot, but Murphy's number scored second prize, $150,000. The amount is the same for multiple winners, unlike the Virginia Lottery, in which a jackpot is split between several ticketholders.

If one person bought more than one of those mistakenly printed tickets, they'll have an even bigger check coming. Lottery officials didn't know Monday afternoon if there was one buyer for each ticket or not.

Murphy showed up at lottery headquarters in Richmond Monday in a ``Kiss Me, I'm Irish'' T-shirt to pick up his check.

``It's been a pretty lucky St. Patrick's Day,'' he said. KEYWORDS: LOTTERY VIRGINIA

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