DATE: Wednesday, August 27, 1997            TAG: 9708270581

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY STEPHEN KIEHL, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   78 lines

$25 MILLION PRIZE MAKES LOTTO FEVER CONTAGIOUS

Sara Neas had never bought a Virginia Lottery ticket - until Tuesday.

Neas accompanied her niece to Athena's Qwik Shop in Chesapeake to pick up lunch, but she was tempted by the panoply of Lotto advertisements on the wall and today's $26 million jackpot.

A Norfolk resident, Neas would only give her age as ``a senior citizen'' and said watching all her friends lose for so many years discouraged her from playing.

``That machine's not set up to give me a lucky number,'' she said. Still, she purchased one Lotto ticket and dreamed of what she might do if she beat the 1-in-7.1 million odds.

``I've got a lot of people I'd share the money with,'' Neas said. ``I'd give them birthday presents bigger than they'd ever had. I'd make a lot of people happy.''

Neas isn't alone in her dreams.

Tonight's jackpot is the fifth largest since Lotto began in 1990, and officials estimate that during the busiest times today, as many as 8,000 tickets could be sold every minute.

If there is just one winner tonight, that person will receive, after taxes, $850,000 per year for the next 20 years.

The Lotto jackpot has gotten so large because no one has won for two months. And if there's no winner in tonight's 10:58 p.m. drawing, Saturday's jackpot will probably be the largest in state history, said Lottery Department spokesman Ed Scarborough.

The current record of $28.4 million was set Nov. 28, 1992. Tonight's purse is the first to top $20 million since March 30, 1996.

Sales for tonight's Lotto drawing are up statewide, Scarborough said. The state expects to sell about 5 million tickets for the drawing, which is more than usual, he said.

It's not the regulars who are pushing sales up; it's the people who usually don't buy but are lured by a big payoff, Scarborough said.

``Certainly there's more interest because it's becoming water cooler conversation,'' he said. ``There are thousands of people who come in who have never purchased a lottery ticket before.''

Some players have a threshold level they wait for the jackpot to cross before jumping in. George Kingston, 55, said he buys tickets for himself and three Central Fidelity co-workers when the jackpot surges past $10 million.

And then there are those who never seem to win but keep playing anyway.

Charles Terwilliger, a 52-year-old construction worker from Chesapeake, said he buys $140 worth of Lottery tickets every week.

``My wife and I don't eat out a lot, I don't drink, so we need to spend our money somehow,'' Terwilliger said, adding that the most he's ever won was $63.

On Tuesday he was buying 10 Lotto tickets - his usual - at Athena's Qwik Shop on South Battlefield Boulevard, just north of the Carolina line. He said he always plays the same numbers, which his wife selected based on birthdays and anniversaries in the family.

Though Lotto players have the option of letting a computer select their numbers, many still take the time to mark off a certain six that have special significance.

Norfolk resident David Keenan, 48, was carefully marking off numbers on three Lotto tickets Tuesday at the 7-Eleven at the corner of Olney Road and Virginia Beach Boulevard.

He said there's been an agreement in his family of four this week that anyone who goes into a 7-Eleven must buy three Lotto tickets.

While Keenan purchased his tickets, the store manager, Debi Pagel, did her best to spread a rumor that her store would sell the winning ticket. She had good reason to create a frenzy - her store gets five cents for every Lotto ticket sold. And if the winning ticket is sold at her store, she and her employees get $5,000 to share.

``Wednesday night, I have to put extra staff on to cover the mass of people coming in,'' Pagel said. ``It's going to be wild.''

If past sales are any indication, hopeful gamblers may have better luck buying their tickets on the Peninsula.

The two most recent jackpots of more than $20 million were claimed by Hampton and Newport News residents. ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]

IAN MARTIN/The Virginian-Pilot

David Keenan buys Lotto tickets at a 7-Eleven store at Virginia

Beach Blvd. and Olney Road in Norfolk.

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