DREAMS OF $60 MILLION BOOST SALES

EAST CAPE GIRARDEAU, Ill. -- The second highest jackpot in Illinois Lotto history proved enough of an inducement Wednesday to persuade Rob Sanders to try his first gamble on the game. Even if it was only a dollar.

"I've never played any kind of lottery," the Southeast Missouri State University junior said before getting in line to purchase a two-play ticket for himself at the Purple Crackle nightclub.

He said he was buying a single ticket because "I heard one time that usually the people who win only play it once."

Sanders went to the nightclub with another Southeast junior, Derek Rigman, who bought five tickets.

They were among hundreds of people who lined up at the nightclub Wednesday one of two days that the Illinois Lotto numbers are drawn each week to purchase tickets for the jackpot, which had climbed to $60 million. The numbers chosen for the jackpot Wednesday night were 7, 9, 19, 29, 32, and 53.

Purple Crackle owner Bud Pearce acknowledged Wednesday that ticket sales at the nightclub had been good. "It's been real brisk for the past week I guess," he said.

He declined to reveal the nightclub's ticket sales, citing security reasons.

Wednesday's Lotto prize was second only to a record Lotto jackpot of $69.9 million.

The record for Wednesday sales fell by 3 p.m., with nearly $8.7 million in sales already chalked up and long lines still waiting to buy more tickets, Lotto spokesperson Margaret Pearson said.

Some players were laying down hundreds of dollars, ignoring an appeal for moderation by Illinois Gov. Jim Edgar. Social workers said the huge jackpot could pose a problem for compulsive gamblers and a Chicago priest said the increase in Lotto sales had cut into his Sunday collection receipts.

Ticket sales Wednesday at the Purple Crackle appeared to be running in spurts. At one point in the afternoon, would-be millionaires had only a short wait, if any, before being able to buy tickets from one of the business' two ticket windows.

At the Anna IGA, Office Manager Linda Newman said the grocery store was also selling a large number of lottery tickets, although it was nowhere near what the Purple Crackle was selling. She said a lot of the people buying tickets at the store were from Cape Girardeau. She said they had come to the IGA store because they didn't want to wait in line at the Purple Crackle.

She said she was prohibited by the store's owners from disclosing how many tickets had been sold. "But I'd say it's 3-to-1 over normal, if that helps," Newman added.

Like Sanders, the Southeast student, Antony Toliver of Cape Girardeau also went to the Purple Crackle to buy one two-play ticket Wednesday. Toliver said he regularly plays the Lotto on Wednesday and Saturday, although he only buys one ticket for any one Lotto drawing.

"I look at it like, if you can't win with that one dollar you don't need to win," said Toliver.

United Press International provided some information for this story.