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Lotto Jackpot On A Roll

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By KEITH MORELLI | The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 20, 2008

TAMPA -- A $1 wager can get you a $37 million return tonight as the Florida Lottery tries to give away a ballooning jackpot that has rolled over for several weeks.

The odds aren't great, though. Chances are 1 in 22,957,480 that your six numbers will match their six numbers.

The jackpot for tonight's Lotto drawing rolled over Saturday when no one hit the jackpot, lottery officials said. That doesn't mean there weren't winners, as 139 people matched five of six numbers for a payout of $5,435 each and 8,685 players matched four of six for $70.50.

Matching three of six were 175,844 ticket buyers, lottery officials say. Those folks hauled home $4.50 each.

The current jackpot series began on Jan. 26, and since then, 61,736,055 tickets have been sold.

Lotto officials said that between 6 and 7 p.m. Tuesday, 64 tickets were sold every second. At 8 a.m. today, the pace was 35 tickets per second.

Leo Kurji, who, along with his wife owns Lee's Food Store at Fletcher Avenue and 15th Street, said Lotto sales were up nearly 25 percent on Tuesday. He expects a push this afternoon for the big money tickets.

"I will probably double that" today, he said. "Any time the jackpot is over $20 million, we do pretty well."

The last bigger-than-usual prize, a jackpot of $18 million, was won by a Town 'N Country family on Jan. 23. That was the drawing before the current jackpot series started.

The family grabbed the one-time, lump-sum payment of about $10 million.

The winning Quick Pick ticket was purchased at the Albertsons supermarket on West Hillsborough Avenue. It was the only ticket that matched all six numbers.

That ticket was the 64th winning Lotto ticket in Hillsborough County and the 927th statewide since the lottery began in January 1988.

Reporter Keith Morelli can be reached at (813) 259-7760 or kmorelli@tampatrib.com.

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