Not just rich -- filthy rich!

That's what you'll be if you win tonight's Lotto jackpot, which has hit $85-million, thanks to nine rollovers.

[AP photo] Ben Moore of Lamar Advertising updates a Lotto sign in Tallahassee on Friday to read $85-million.

By MIKE BRASSFIELD and SUSAN THURSTON
© St. Petersburg Times
published January 19, 2002

Today, convenience store clerks all over Florida are hearing this sentence over and over and over again.

"Give me five Quick Picks."

The Florida Lotto jackpot has rolled over nine straight times without a winner, and the jackpot is up to $85-million, the most it has been in nearly nine years. It's the largest prize in the country right now and the fourth-highest jackpot in the lottery's 13-year history.

By Friday evening, lottery tickets were selling at the rate of 15,000 per minute.

"That's going to ramp up as we get closer to the drawing," said Florida Lottery spokesman Leo DiBenigno. "Lines will begin forming."

Ticket sales will cut off at 10:40 tonight. The drawing will be at 11 p.m. The odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 23-million, but that never stops people from dreaming.

"You can't win if you don't play," said drywall contractor Randy Watson as he bought five Quick Picks on Friday at Shep's Food Mart in St. Petersburg. If he wins, he'll remodel his house, buy a PT Cruiser for his wife and help out his friends -- just for starters.

"Eighty-five million is a lot of money," said St. Petersburg financial planner Sean Goodrich, 33, who bought 20 tickets. With that kind of cash, he'd buy a second home at a ski resort, donate to charity and hire a co-worker to manage his winnings.

In Tampa, convenience store clerk Zeus Parker said he was chained behind the counter all day Friday, selling tickets to Lotto hopefuls.

"It's been driving me crazy," he said. "It's too much."

Parker, 30, suspected it was the busiest day in his three years of working at the 818 Market on Platt Street. A few customers bought 300 or more.

"They all say, "Give me the winning Lotto ticket, ... and I'll give you some,' " he said.

Joe Pinson of Tampa's Hyde Park neighborhood slapped down $15. The 41-year-old has played the same numbers for 10 years and has never missed a drawing.

"I've got the fever," he said. "I'll never change the numbers because if I do, they'll come in, and I'll be in the funny farm."

Roseann Daniels of Tampa dreamed about new houses and about money for her mother as she marked her favorite numbers on a Lotto ticket at the Hyde Park Texaco on Kennedy Boulevard.

"I made sure I had the money this week," said Daniels, 22. "This is too big to pass up."

If there's no winner tonight, the jackpot will roll over for a 10th time. Lottery officials think it probably would break Florida's all-time record of $106.5-million.

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