$30 Million at Stake as Lottery Fever Hits N.Y.

Saturday’s $30-million jackpot in the state’s Lotto 48 drawing attracted so many players that lottery officials, who anticipated raising the payoff, said their computers couldn’t keep up.

Bets were placed at a rate of more than $19,000 a minute Saturday morning and sales were made faster than during a comparable period before August’s $41-million drawing, the North American record, said Lottery Director John D. Quinn.

The six winning numbers drawn Saturday night were 22, 32, 34, 14, 43 and 12.

Lottery officials said the computers wouldn’t be able to finish processing results to determine if anyone had picked the right numbers until today.

On Saturday alone, sales totaled $11.4 million, said Dan Codden, the lottery’s director of operations. Since Wednesday’s drawing, people had bet $27.8 million, compared to $18.7 million gambled in the same period before the August drawing, he said.

Revenue from that heavy betting had boosted the jackpot from $28 million Thursday to $30 million by Friday.

Quinn said that if no one won Saturday’s drawing, “I’m reasonably assured that we may exceed the $41 million and may reach $50 million,” the limit set by the state on Lotto prizes.

But Quinn said the chances of someone picking a winning number Saturday were “above 90%.”

People stood in lines outside newsstands and other shops selling tickets, with waiting times up to 2 1/2 hours reported at some spots.

The Lotto 48 jackpot had rolled over six times, with no winners since the prize began at $3 million on Dec. 28. The jackpot rolled over seven times before the record Aug. 21, 1985, prize of $41 million was hit by three tickets, one of which was shared by 21 Mount Vernon factory workers.

If a single player won Saturday, the payoff would be 21 annual checks of $1.3 million each, Quinn said.

To win, a bettor must pick six numbers from a field of 48 to match the numbers chosen in a televised drawing.