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CNN Live Saturday

Powerball Lottery At $128 Million

Aired August 18, 2001 - 16:23   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DONNA KELLEY, CNN ANCHOR: What would you do if you won 128 million bucks? That's the jackpot that's up for grabs tonight in the multi-state powerball lottery.

At this hour, would-be winners srambling to buy a ticket, hoping that it will be the one that will make them instant multi- millionaires.

CNN's Kathleen Koch is live at one of the ticket outlets in the Washington, D.C., area. She joins us now.

Kathleen did you buy a ticket?

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I did. I have to admit it, Donna. I was pretty conservative though, I only spent $20. I didn't break the bank.

We are actually finding that even people who drive into Washington from Maryland, from Virginia, are spending between one and $5, because even lottery officials say that people have become more sophisticated. They understand that the odds are really great of winning tonight's jackpot, the $128 million jackpot. The odds ever 80 million to one.

The head of the Powerball Game Group, who was here speaking with me a few minutes ago, he described that as tantamount to -- he said your odds are actually better of being struck by lightning twice on a sunny day than of winning that jackpot. But Tony Cooper -- nonetheless, he said he would offer up a little bit of advice for anyone who actually might win tonight's jackpot.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TONY COOPER: I would tell anybody, if you win a powerful prize the first thing you should do, before you run down to the claims center, is go find yourself a good attorney, and then go find yourself a good financial planner. Maybe make sure that the attorney doesn't recommend the financial planner, and vice versa. So you have independent powers.

Then, take a deep breath. Take about a week or so, make sure the ticket -- you signed the back of the ticket and the ticket is placed in a nice safe location.

Then, find out what the rules and regs in a particular jurisdiction are with respect to your prize.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOCH: Donna, with these lottery tickets selling fast and furiously they are expecting quite a lot of viewers to tune in tonight at 10:59 when the prize-winning numbers role out. Back to you.

KELLEY: Good luck. Kathleen Koch, thanks very much.

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