Madoff Helps People Win Lottery

NEW YORK (AP) - Wall Street swindler Bernard Madoff
is a lucky charm for one New York City construction worker.
Queens resident Ralph Amendolaro says he saw Madoff's prison
number in a newspaper and had a good feeling so he played the last
three digits of it in the state lottery's Numbers game.
It hit March 15, paying $1,500.
Lottery officials say other people had the same idea. The number
combination 0-5-4 produced 501 winning tickets the Sunday after
Madoff's guilty plea, up from 120 winners the previous day.
Madoff's prison registration number is 61727-054.
A lottery spokeswoman says people often play numbers they see on
the news.
So many people played the flight number of a jet that landed
safely in the Hudson River that the lottery had to halt sales.

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)