POWERBALL TICKET SALES SOAR AS JACKPOT HITS $113 MILLION

With the Powerball lottery jackpot at $100-million plus for tonight's drawing, lottery fever is at a high pitch in Cape Girardeau and other areas where Powerball is played.

That includes 20 states and the District of Columbia. It does not include Illinois, which has its own multimillion-dollar lottery game.

"We're seeing people we haven't seen before," said Khrystee Anderson of Rhodes 101 Stop, 1008 N. Kingshighway, a lottery ticket sales outlet. "And people are buying more tickets."

Tonight's jackpot has been estimated at $113 million, highest in the Powerball game's history. It could be more, depending on ticket sales today.

Players try to match five white numbers from a pool of 49 and one red Powerball number from a pool of 42. The odds with the Powerball game are 1 in 80.1 million.

Today's million jackpot drawing comes with a warning -- players are being urged to be responsible and remember it is strictly a game of chance. Lottery officials in Powerball states felt it necessary to start urging players to use restraint when buying tickets.

The second-largest jackpot, $111.2 million, was won in July 1993.

Beverly Opie, marketing director for the Iowa-based Lottery, said many states are running newspaper and broadcast advertisements asking players to be responsible. The advertisements are aimed at players who aren't familiar with the lottery and only play when the jackpots rise above $50 million, officials said.

Opie said lottery officials don't want people spending thousands of dollars buying tickets, "but we do want to see people buying tickets."

People are buying more tickets, but lottery fever over the high jackpots is not likely to turn players into problem gamblers, said Dr. Martin Kommor of the West Virginia University Department of Behavioral Medicine and Psychiatry.

Kommer said he never had a patient mention the lottery. "My family and friends talk about it more than my patients. It's a great topic of conversation," he said.

"We see a lot of people who typically spend a dollar or two spending $5 or $10 now," said Dave Richbourg, manager of the video department at Schnucks, which sells Powerball tickets.

"I've been busy all day selling Powerball and lottery tickets," said Richbourg. "And we'll probably be even busier today."

A lot of people are buying tickets for pools, said Richbourg and Anderson and Donald Bernhardt at Bi-State Southern, 400 Morgan Oak, a lottery outlet.

Several groups are pooling their money and buying up to 100, 150 and 200 Powerball chances.

Powerball lottery ticket sales started increasing Thursday when it was learned that the $88 million had not been won Wednesday night.

Nationwide, people are spending $25 to $100. And it won't be uncommon to see people from other states spending from $500 to $1,000, said one lottery official.

Those numbers tend to come from players who pool their money to buy batches of tickets.

Jackpot winners have the option of collecting their winnings in one lump sum or having the $113 million paid out over 25 years. The lump-sum option is worth $60.7 million.

The lottery attracts a lot of interest nationwide and in Missouri.

Since the first lottery ticket was sold in Missouri 12 years ago, the Missouri Lottery has grown from $207 million in annual sales to more than $400 million a year. Tickets first went on sale in Missouri on Jan. 20, 1986.

More than 30,000 tickets were sold in Cape Girardeau County that opening day. Today, lottery tickets are available at 73 outlets throughout Cape County. Ticket sales in the county today average more than $300,000 a month.

Powerball is one of the favorites of lottery ticket buyers. Powerball sales account for more than one-fourth of the sales in the county.