TATTERSALL'S involvement in an allegedly illegal African lottery is being probed by Victoria's gambling watchdog.

The pokies giant is helping to run a financially troubled Nigerian lottery that could be illegal under the west African nation's constitution.

Tattsnet, a private company half-owned by Tattersall's and Swedish company Essnet, has a multi-million dollar technology supply contract with National Sports Lottery.

A Tattersall's spokesman said he had no knowledge of NSL's financial situation and denied Lotto Nigeria was acting illegally.

NSL, which runs Lotto Nigeria, has the support of President and former military dictator Olusegun Obasanjo.

Seminole County postal worker Robert Swofford Jr. had $35 million in Florida Lotto winnings, and his soon-to-be ex-wife wanted a piece of it.

Swofford solved that problem, but now he's got another one: The ex-wife's sister wants a cut, too, and she's taking him to court to get it.

The way Mary Lackey sees it, she deserves part of the money every bit as much as her sister Ann did. And some folks might agree she has a point.

Better check your numbers.

The employees of a San Mateo liquor store are anxiously waiting for the lucky customer who bought a lottery ticket worth $13.5 million to step forward.Liquor City, located at 1230 Hillsdale Blvd. in the Laurelwood Shopping Center, was bombarded with television crews when an employee opened the store yesterday morning.

Soon after, a lottery representative stepped through the front door to deliver the official news that the store sold one of two winning tickets to Wednesday’s $27 million jackpot.

The representative handed out buttons and posters that read “Millionaire made here.”

Seminole County postal worker Robert Swofford Jr. had $35 million in Florida Lotto winnings, and his soon-to-be ex-wife wanted a piece of it.

Swofford solved that problem, but now he's got another one: The ex-wife's sister wants a cut, too, and she's taking him to court to get it.

A ticket bought in Indiana won the $19.9 million multi-state Powerball drawing Saturday night, but nobody won the $400,000 Louisiana Lotto jackpot or the $50,000 Cash Quest game.

The next Louisiana Lotto drawing will be worth an estimated $425,000 while Saturday's Powerball jackpot drops to $10 million.

The Louisiana Lottery Corporation said 18 Louisiana Lotto tickets had five of the six numbers drawn Saturday and won $1,846 and another 769 had four of the numbers to win $45.

The Lotteries Commission's first-half profit and sales fell sharply after it missed out on two lucrative Powerball jackpot runs and an advertising rebranding campaign fell flat.

The commission reported revenue of $305.9 million in the six months to December 31, down 10.7 per cent on the same half a year earlier, when the "exceptional" jackpot runs boosted revenue.

Profit fell 19.2 per cent to $61.7 million, due partly to the fall in revenue and partly due to a 23 per cent rise in costs to $23 million. The sharply higher costs were linked to the commission's first big revamp of its main Lotto product in 17 years and an expansion of its retail network.

The jackpot in the multi-state Mega Millions lottery grew to $96 million Wednesday.

None of the tickets sold for Tuesday's $82 million drawing matched all five lotto numbers and the Mega Ball. The next drawing will be Friday.

There were eight second-prize winners from Tuesday night's drawing: from Massachusetts, 1 from Michigan, 1 from New Jersey, 2 from New York, 2 from Texas, and 1 from Virginia. Each ticket matched all five lotto numbers but not the Mega Ball number to win $175,000.

A single mother has walked off with a £9 million lotto win after a clairvoyant said she would have a "big win".

Divorced mother-of-one Sharon Creighton was told in a letter from the medium that she was due "a big win" just weeks before winning last Saturday's rollover National Lottery jackpot.

Mrs Creighton, 40, told a press conference today: "The clairvoyant that sent me a letter did say I'd have one big win and in the future have two smaller wins.

The Tuesday, February 1 Mega Millions drawing really brought out the winners! A total of 288,884 tickets from coast to coast won Mega Millions prizes; including eight tickets that each won $175,000 and 25 tickets that each won $5,000.

In fact, Mega Millions players won a total of $2,887,699 in Tuesday’s drawing. However, no ticket matched all six numbers to win the jackpot. That means the jackpot for the Friday, February 4, 2005 Mega Millions drawing grows to an estimated $32 million.

Tuesday’s winning numbers were: 03-17-21-42-44 and the Mega Ball number was 35.

Tennessee’s Lotto 5 game has set a new record with the current jackpot for Monday night’s drawing now estimated at $730,000. The previous record of $670,823, which was sold in Morristown, was won in October of 2004.

Friday’s Lotto 5 drawing produced 3,116 winners throughout the state, including 98 players who won $174 each and 3,018 players who won $9 each.