New York Lotto Fever Rages Into Epidemic : Hundreds of Thousands in Last-Minute Bid for $41-Million Jackpot

New York’s lottery fever raged into an epidemic Wednesday as hundreds of thousands scrambled to buy last-minute tickets for the dream of a lifetime--a record $41 million state lotto jackpot.

Excited would-be millionaires began lining up in the rain at dawn to buy tickets at a rate of up to 22,000 a minute at lotto stands across the state for the largest lottery prize in North American history.

Although the winning numbers--14, 17, 22, 23, 30 and 47--were drawn at 10:30 p.m. Wednesday, it was expected to be 10 a.m. today before computers could weed through the combinations to determine if there were any winners.

Chances 1 in 6 Million

Their dreams were as wild as their chances--1 in 6 million.

“No. 1, I’ll sponsor my boyfriend for the U.S. Olympics,” said Laura Rosenthal, 22, a Manhattan office worker waiting behind about 30 persons at a cigarette stand on posh Fifth Avenue. “Then I’ll go around the world, buy a few cars, a few French villas.”

“I would take my family out of New York and buy an island, if God is willing,” John Sepulveda, 30, a Queens computer engineer, said in reverent tones on an hourlong line that snaked around a Times Square block.

“Have a baby,” Gerson Resnik, 30, an airline flight attendant, promised nervously. “Well, not me, of course, but with my wife.”

“I would retire in three months and go back to Altoona for good,” said Homer Clapper, a 48-year-old chauffeur. “I work in New York, but, oh, I never got used to it.”

“I’m afraid I’ll drop dead if I win,” confided 69-year-old Queens cabbie Bartholomew E. Mooney, who nonetheless bought $30 worth of tickets for himself, and $20 each for his 10 children.

Visiting Europeans kept their continental cool in the muggy summer heat. “I will keep on doing what I’m doing--nothing change,” said Mario Coss, a dapper 44-year-old Italian advertising executive. Agreed Lorenza Hines, a 19-year-old English college student: “I’m just going to relax.”

Players bought their tickets at 4,000 newsstands, bus stations, record stores and other shops across the state. Anyone over 18 may play, getting two chances for $1. The winner must choose six numbers from 48 on the pink betting card and return the card to a ticket seller. Official lotto machines then spit out blue and orange tickets printed with the six numbers.

For some first players, the excitement was too much.

“It’s crazy, very, very wild,” said Mike Santarpia, owner of a liquor store in East Harlem, where a line stretching for a block formed at 7 a.m. “They’re so nervous they give the money and then they just walk away without taking their tickets.”

Players’ systems for choosing their lucky six numbers ranged as wildly as their hopes. Some used birthdays and anniversaries, others decks of cards and horoscopes and still others matched dry cleaning tickets and license plates.

“My 3-year-old nephew picks my numbers for me,” said Bob Russo, 24, a Manhattan electronics technician. “I give him a bag of chips with the numbers 1 through 48 on them and he chooses them.”

Uses Digital Watch

“I have a random number counter on my watch which is digital,” explained Jim Provan, 24, a graphic designer for a film company in Wayne, N.J. “I set it to 3 and randomly choose.”

State lottery officials say they do not know the number of out-of-state players. But lotto spokesman George Yaman said that 29 of the 375 millionaires created by New York’s lottery have been from outside the state. And James Nolan, lottery regional director, said: “The Jersey people are going out en masse.”

Hundreds of cars with licenses from across New England and as far away as Florida filled the parking lot at the state’s Off-Track Betting parlor in tiny New Lebanon, on the Massachusetts border. About 200 persons waited outside the State Line Grocery in Ripley near the Pennsylvania border.

“This is the busiest I’ve ever seen it,” said a clerk at Mario’s newsstand in Niagara Falls, about a mile from the Canadian border. She said that about one-third of the players were Canadians.

At the Greater Buffalo International Airport, one man flew his own plane in to buy $5 worth of tickets, said gift shop owner Carmeline Rampino. “One man who said he was from Ohio came in with a big stack of tickets with names on them,” she said. “He had about $100 worth. He said he was playing for everyone on his block.”

In Manhattan, office managers gave their blessings so an employee could buy tickets for the whole office.

“I don’t usually play, but my boss said ‘Let’s play,’ and they picked me to do it,” said Irene Cornhouser, 23, a Manhattan legal secretary. Added Sharon Jones, another secretary: “I went to my office and we all chipped in 17 cents apiece and we’ll split if we win.”

Lottery officials said the total ticket sales of about $90 million would produce about $40 million for a state education fund. About 15% goes for operating costs and sales commissions. The prize is so high because no one has won the twice-weekly drawing since July 24. Payments are made over 20 years.

The world’s largest lottery is Spain’s annual El Gordo, which last year awarded a $73.5-million grand prize. It was shared by thousands of bank employees and customers in the northern city of Valladolid.