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Big bucks adds more players for Lotto pot
A $64-million prize isn't Lotto's best, but will still mean higher ticket sales.
By CURTIS KRUEGER
Published April 14, 2006
LARGO - Marco Bravo buys Florida Lotto tickets only about a dozen times a year, but once he saw the jackpot had zoomed to $64-million, he knew it was time to play.
Bravo, who lives in Miramar but was visiting Pinellas County for a soccer tournament, zipped into a BP station on Ulmerton Road on Thursday for what he hopes is the winning ticket.
He knows exactly what he would try to do if he wins Saturday's jackpot: "First, calm down." Next, "secure my kids' college education and think about my own business."
Bravo, 44, said he works in financial services, but $64-million could help anyone's bottom line.
The Lotto jumped to an estimated $64-million when no one picked the winning numbers Wednesday. If no one wins Saturday, it will go up again.
The big jackpot is persuading lottery dabblers like Bravo to get in the game. Charles Astocondor, for example, heard about it at work Thursday and went to buy himself a ticket.
Winning would sure make it easier to afford a Corvette that recently caught his eye. But Astocondor, an applications engineer from Tampa, said his bigger dream would be to start his own business, which among other things would allow him to bring family members from Peru to come work for him.
The odds of winning are roughly 1 in 23 million. If more people buy tickets, that increases the chances that more than one person gets a winning ticket. In fact, in the five biggest Lotto drawings, at least three people had winning tickets.
Although huge jackpots bring out more players, some, like Cheryl Harris, 40, an office manager from Dunedin, buy tickets whether the jackpot is up or down. Her philosophy: "You either play or you don't."
TO P FLORID A JACKPOTS
$106.5-MILLION: September 1990, six winning tickets
$104.8-MILLION: December 2002, four winning tickets
$89.8-MILLION: October 1991, six winning tickets, including one to a Tampa family
$87.8-MILLION: September 2002, seven winning tickets
$87.6-MILLION: January 2002, four winning tickets, including one to a man in Dade City and one to a man in Tampa
[Last modified April 14, 2006, 01:54:06]
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