Lottery fever is alive and well in Morris County

Monday, April 10, 2006 posted 02:44 AM EDT

They call themselves the Coolers, based on the 2003 Las Vegas thriller "The Cooler," starring William Macy. He plays a character who is hired in old-school casinos to subdue high rollers' action, until he falls in love.

Unlike the movie, this group has not encountered Lady Luck and has yet to pinpoint its cooler. But that doesn't stop them from continuing their 15-year tradition of Thursday lottery lunches.

It's no coincidence that Thursday just happens to be when the Pick 6 is drawn.

"We haven't figured out who the cooler is," said Doug Viofora of Edison.

Viofora was joined at Peking Chinese Restaurant in Parsippany by Lajos Bartucz of Parsippany and Joe Scirotnak of Cedar Grove.

Driven more by "why not" than "what if,"the trio are just a microcosm of players in the Morris County area who have made the lottery a lifestyle.

For game enthusiasts, whether they play Pick-3 midday and evenings or Pick-6 and Mega Millions, every player has a special number or superstitious ritual.

"It's a recreational thing," Bartucz said. "If you expect and want and must win, you're never going to win. If you're having some fun, then maybe."

This from a grandfather and avid University of Florida Gators basketball fan who puts the group's tickets in a mayonnaise jar on his porch "for additional good luck."

The Coolers befriended each other when they were working in different capacities in the chemical industry. This was prior to their respective retirements.

They concentrate on high yield wins produced by the Mega Millions and Pick-6, and rarel play Pick-3 or Pick-4.

Bartucz purchases the tickets weekly and sends out an e-mail to announce the numbers.

He also carries a ticket containing his late friend's numbers.

"I'm keeping his number alive," he said. "I won $7 on anniversary of his death.

According to the New Jersey State Lottery Commission, the most popular games in 2005, ranked by sales, were as follows:

• Pick-3: $456,582,545.

• Pick-4: $265,003,920.

• Mega Millions: $253,408,054.

• Jersey Cash 5: $123,253,335.

• Pick-6 Lotto: $109,983,537.

The popularity in sales of the Pick-3 and Pick-4 games is mirrored here by many players in Morris County.

Unlike the Coolers, who let the Quick Pick computer system draw their Pick-6 and Mega Millions numbers, fans of smaller yield games like to choose their own hand.

"It's always my numbers, a combination of my birthday numbers," said Pat Dougherty of Flanders. "It has become a case where I feel that the day I do not play, that is the day my numbers will win."

Her highest win came from a hitting four numbers on a computer-generated Pick 6 ticket. Total payout: $61.

Dougherty spends about $1,000 annually on lottery games. The most she won using her own numbers was $10.

"Hope springs eternal for we lottery players," she said.

Pick-3 and Pick-4 enthusiast Joanne Billia of Budd Lake is attached to specific numbers like birthdays and Social Security numbers.

"I usually don't switch at all from them,"she said. "Once in a blue moon my husband will give me a number he sees, like when the odometer changes on the truck he'll call and say to play it."

She plays twice daily and faithfully, a routine brought upon by missing out on a $4,000 win a few years back.

"The one day I couldn't get to the store, my numbers came up," she said. Her biggest yield to date is $330.

The same goes for avid Pick-3 and Pick-4 player Kathy Costa of Madison. A regular at Main Street Submarines in Madison, she engages in daily games of Pick-3 and Pick-4, plus scratch offs.

"Yeah, she's 5-2-4 and 8-1-9," store owner Ralph Artigliere said.

"I've been playing a long time, almost 20 years," said Costa, a mother of three. "I mostly use birthdays."

Her children, too, get in on the fever, but just for scratch-offs.

Artigliere said Pick-3 and Pick-4 are most popular among his regulars, but when the Mega Millions hits 100 "the office pools kick in," he said.

"Everyone buys tickets," he said. "One hundred million is the magic number."

Meadowlands Employment Services in Secaucus is one such office, with a lottery pool and a cheering ritual to boot.

"We've been playing for about two years now and never hit the numbers," Phil Gutierrez of Wharton wrote in an e-mail to Daily Record. "There are five of us and we play our birthdays. We have hit three numbers at the most, winning about $11. ...Every time we play, we get together in a circle, put all of our hands together and cheer '1, 2, 3, win.'"

But it doesn't end there. The group also indulges in scratch-offs and Gutierrez reaped an eye-opening $500.

"Other times I've won $100, $60, $50 and $57," he said.

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