DATE: Monday, August 25, 1997               TAG: 9708250073

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY STEVE STONE, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   66 lines

A WHOLE LOTTO MONEY THE JACKPOT CLIMBS TO ABOUT $25 MILLION FOR WEDNESDAY'S DRAWING.

Beware! The plague is spreading through Hampton Roads.

Early symptoms were evident Sunday. People were mumbling numbers at random, usually between 1 and 44; folks who normally see Sunday as a day of loafing were making excuses to run errands - often to a convenience store; bread winners with sweaty brows were talking of exotic places and late-model cars.

Lotto fever is building.

``What could I do with $25 million? Hmmmm. . . .'' Mildred Copeland, 37, of Norfolk wondered after buying tickets for Wednesday's drawing - the largest in more than a year. ``How about I give you 25 ways to spend a million?''

With no winner in Saturday night's $21.9 million drawing, Virginia's lottery jackpot is perhaps just one step away from hitting untrod territory, said Ed Scarborough, a Lottery Department spokesman.

If there is no winner on Wednesday, when the prize is expected to be $25 million, the next jackpot would likely be $28 million or more.

``It all depends on sales,'' Scarborough said. The record in the state's big-stakes game was $28.4 million, won on Nov. 28, 1992.

It's been a long time since faithful players have had such a big prize to dream about. The last time there was a prize of more than $20 million was March 30, 1996, when it topped out at $26 million. It was split between two lucky ticket-holders, one in Newport News and the other in Richmond.

August is a good month for big jackpots. Two of the 10 biggest were won in the month: $26.8 million on Aug. 10, 1991, and $24.5 million on Aug. 25, 1993.

Scarborough has little doubt the prize pool will surge this week.

``I think it's going to be the water cooler topic around the state,'' he said Sunday. But people who want to play best not wait until Wednesday night, just before the drawing.

``When we get up into the $25 million range, it's not uncommon for us to be selling as many as 8,000 tickets a minute'' statewide, he said. ``People need to buy early. Otherwise, you'll find lines.'' And, he added: ``Play responsibly. The odds of winning are 1 in 7.1 million. It's not an easy game to win.''

Erica and Erik Richardson said Sunday they were playing the game no differently than they do any other time as they carted off 36 tickets from a Virginia Beach 7-Eleven. The couple were making the ``Lotto run'' from the biweekly barbecue they have with a circle of friends.

``It's sort of a tradition,'' Erica Richardson said. ``Everyone puts in two bucks. Then we buy however many tickets we can, one number on each. We put an X on one ticket and dump them all in a hat and everyone pulls out a ticket.''

People get to keep and play the ticket they pull, and whoever gets the ticket with the X ``wins'' all the other tickets. If no one gets it on the first round, they draw again until someone picks it, when that person would get all but the original round of tickets.

So how has that system paid off? ``One of my friends won, like, $58 a few years ago,'' Erica Richardson said. Otherwise, ``we've just gotten a lot of free plays. But the $25 million ticket is in here,'' she said, snapping the bundle of pink tickets from her husband's hands. I just wish I knew which one.''

Others also were out to beat the rush and get their tickets Sunday.

``If Lady Luck would come visit my door, I'd be one happy man,'' said Dan Cameron of Norfolk. ILLUSTRATION: TOP FIVE PRIZES

GRAPHIC

[For a copy of the graphic, see microfilm for this date.]

SOURCE: Virginia Lottery Department KEYWORDS: LOTTERY LOTTO

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