New Lotto Game Debuts : Your Number May Be Up After Drawing

The first winning numbers for California’s new, computerized Lotto game were announced Saturday night at the climax of a 30-minute variety show televised from the Wilshire Theater in Beverly Hills.

The jackpot was an annuity worth $2,417,000.

But no immediate winner was announced.

Lotto officials said it is possible that no one had a ticket with those numbers, or that the ticket-holder had not yet discovered his good fortune. In any case, they added, no winner could be officially certified until California Lottery offices open Monday morning.

The numbers 36-9-47-39-4 and 33--and the bonus number 25--were selected by machine during the final minutes of a television program billed as “Dreaming: The California Lotto Premiere,” starring Flip Wilson, which followed several weeks of hoopla introducing the computerized numbers game.

The television show also included a surprise appearance by veteran comedian Milton Berle, masquerading as the voice of the Lotto machine, and performances by actress Susan Anton and singer Stephen Bishop.

But the machine--a 450-pound, 6-foot, 3-inch device with a clear glass bowl into which 49 number-stamped balls were dumped for random selection--was the show’s real star.

The attention of the audience (which included about a dozen new millionaires from the older scratch-off lottery games) appeared to stray back to it again and again during the live performances.

Saturday was the first time the Lotto number-selection machine had been used--and its last appearance in Southern California. Subsequent drawings will be held in Sacramento, with winning numbers telecast each Saturday night at 7:58 p.m.

The new numbers game, called the Lotto 6-49 system, was switched on Tuesday at special ceremonies in Los Angeles County, where 1,555 of the state’s 4,615 existing green and black Lotto terminals are located.

About $1.1 million worth of Lotto tickets were sold statewide in the first nine hours, according to California Lottery officials, who said another $5 million to $6 million had been taken in before sales for the first game ended, 15 minutes before the drawing.

Lotto 6-49--which is operated separately from the scratch-off ticket games and weekly “Big Spin” for jackpots--requires the player to select six numbers out of a field of 49.

Cards available at electronic Lotto outlets have five separate sections with 49 numbers each. The bet for each section is $1, and if all five sections are filled in the bet is $5. After marking six numbers in each section, the card is inserted in a terminal, which produces an officially validated slip with numbers chosen by the player.

These validated slips are then held by the individual players until the weekly drawing, in which six numbers and a bonus number are chosen by the machine.

The game is a pari-mutuel system, meaning that the prizes get bigger as more people play. The jackpot for picking all six winning Lotto numbers is 40% of the weekly prize pool, plus any roll-over from the previous week.

Five of the six numbers, plus the bonus number, wins 21.35% of the pool. Without the bonus, the five alone are worth 11%. Four of six wins 10% and three numbers wins just $5.

If there is no winner in any one of the categories, that week’s prize is rolled over into the next week’s pool. If there are two or more winners in any category, that pool is split evenly between them.

For the first week’s drawing, the pool amount for five correct numbers, plus the bonus number, was $679,065; for five correct numbers alone, $349,869; and for four correct numbers, $318,063.