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CNN Saturday Morning News

Lottery Fever is Heating Up

Aired August 18, 2001 - 09:22   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.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: Lottery fever is heating up. There's at least $128 million at stake in tonight's multistate Powerball lottery, and there are lots of people standing in lines hoping that they will buy that winning ticket.

Kathleen Koch joins us now live from a convenience store in Washington. Morning to you, Kathleen.

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning.

When this store opened up at 8:00 this morning, there was a line of about 25 people outside. Right now the line has dwindled down, but we're still getting a lot of people coming in here, primarily because this convenience store happens to be just a few blocks from the border with the state of Maryland, which does not participate in the Powerball lottery.

Now, we have a couple of folks who drove down from Maryland just this morning to beat the lines. It's Larry and his mother, Larry Levin and his mother, Alice.

Tell us about your trip. How far did you have to drive?

ALICE LEVIN: Oh, about, what, 15 minutes?

LARRY LEVIN: About 15 minutes, yes, from upper Bethesda.

KOCH: Now, do you play the Powerball on a regular basis?

LARRY LEVIN: No, but when I saw the $100 million, I thought, Oh, my God, I got to get it. So here it is.

KOCH: So tell us, how many tickets did you buy? And do you have a system? Do you choose your own numbers?

LARRY LEVIN: No. I mean, I rarely do this stuff, so I got six. My horoscope said six was my lucky number, so I bought six.

KOCH: All right, Larry and Alice, thanks a lot for joining us.

Now, those of you who are thinking of getting in your cars and crossing state lines to try and buy a ticket, remember the odds are pretty long on this one. The odds of winning are one in 80 million.

Back to you.

SAVIDGE: Kathleen, thank you very much. I'm sorry for the delay there. I think I was still flabbergasted by $128 million. I was mentally spending it in my mind. Thank you once more.

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