DATE: Wednesday, August 27, 1997            TAG: 9708270578

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B4   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY STEVE STONE, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   30 lines

NEWSPAPER NUMBERS PROVE POPULAR, BUT THEY'LL PAY OFF POORLY

Perhaps they considered it an omen. Maybe they thought the newspaper knows something they don't.

Whatever the reason, a lot of folks who saw a Virginia lottery ticket that accompanied a story in Monday's Virginian-Pilot about tonight's $26 million Lotto prize decided the numbers on it suit them just fine. Millionaires they'll not be, however, even if they win.

The three numerical sequences fully visible in the newspaper were among the top 10 most heavily played numbers in the state as of 8 p.m. Tuesday. The first sequence had been played by 207 people, making it the fifth-highest; the second, with 194 plays, was sixth; the third, with 160 plays, was ninth.

``It's fascinating,'' said Ed Scarborough, a lottery department spokesman. ``There's no doubt people saw those numbers in the paper and are playing them. But they are forgetting that this is a parimutuel game - if one of those numbers wins, the prize is split among all holders of that number.''

Keep in mind that there are about 7.1 million possible numerical combinations for Lotto. Most sequences are only played one or two times, if at all.

So what will the folks get if the first series of numbers in the newspaper - 10-14-20-21-25-33 - wins? First, paid over 20 years, it drops to about $1.3 million. After the taxman's cut, it drops to $884,000. Split that chunk of change 207 times, and it's a mere $4,270 annually per person.

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