ILLINOIS LOTTO IS SWELLING; WEDNESDAY'S GAME AT OVER $32 MILLION

EAST CAPE GIRARDEAU, Ill. -- It's happening again: the Illinois State Lottery Lotto jackpot is inching up.

The weekend jackpot, valued at $25 million, rolled over again and is approaching momentous proportions. Wednesday's Lotto jackpot will be worth at least $32 million to a single winner, lottery officials said Monday, and it could be even more.

"Anytime the jackpot reaches $30 million, tickets sales go up," said Clyde "Bud" Pearce, owner of the Purple Crackle, which sells Lotto tickets. "The last time the jackpot was this high, we had two machines going and had a long waiting line."

That was in October 1991, when the jackpot reached $63 million before a winning ticket was drawn.

"The heavy sales are expected to start Tuesday," said Pearce. "Thousands of tickets are usually purchased the day of drawing, too. So we can expect some heavy activity here Wednesday."

Many players came close last weekend. No ticket matched all six winning numbers in Saturday's $25 million Lotto drawing, but the drawing did produce 270 players who matched five of the six winning numbers for second prizes of $1,850 each. Another 16,303 players matched four of the six numbers to receive third prizes of $61.

The Saturday numbers were 1-6-7-13-18-33.

"The jackpot could be even higher than $32 million," said Pearce. "The jackpot is estimated, based on the carryover amount and expectations of sales. Seventy percent of the funds from Lotto tickets are placed in the jackpot. If sales soar, so does the jackpot."

Pearce said the jackpot could reach $33 to $35 million.

"State officials said Monday morning that it would be about $30 million," said Pearce. "By 4 p.m. Monday, it was at $32 million. And you still have the biggest sales day (Wednesday) left."

Pearce said that once the jackpot hits $30 million people start forming small and large groups and send a representative to pick up hundreds of tickets.

"There are a lot of people out there who won't play the lottery unless it gets big," said Pearce. "You'd be surprised at the new faces you see once it hits $30 million."

Even Gov. Jim Edgar purchased a ticket in Springfield during the $63 million jackpot in 1991. The governor confessed that he is not a regular lottery patron, buying a ticket basically "whenever it gets over $50 million."

Edgar purchased only one ticket at that time and urged people not to get so excited about the huge jackpot that they spend more than they can afford.

Pearce said he had already noticed an increase in sales here.

"Our Sunday sales were up some," he said. "And Monday sales were up considerably."

Pearce said that even with increased sales, he didn't anticipate long waits this time around.

"We have new and faster equipment now," said Pearce. "We have machines that can handle twice as many sales as our previous equipment."

Ticket sales have been up throughout the area.

"You have a big pot, you get the big players," said a lottery spokesman from Rex Liquor Store at Cairo. "We have customers who won't play until the pot gets into the big millions."

The big sales are expected to start at Rex Liquor today. "We had pretty good sales Monday, but we expect to be real busy today and even more busy Wednesday.

"We expect to see the total to go past $35 million by the time they draw Wednesday," said the Rex spokesman.

The largest Illinois jackpot on record was $69.9 million, shared by four winners in April 1989. Another $63 million jackpot emerged in October 1991. There have also been two previous jackpots of $40 million or more.

The largest jackpot ticket sold by the Purple Crackle was a $1,245,000 winner. "That ticket was never claimed," said Pearce. "We had to wait a full year before we collected on our commission."