Six Numbers

If you're thinking about strolling across the street today to pick up a Maryland Lottery ticket at the local gas station, be careful. You're more likely to get killed by a car than win the jackpot.And watch out next week. It's more likely a bolt of lightning would come crashing down on your head than you'd win a million dollars.In short, the odds stink.That's the message mathematician Alan F. Karr passed on to prospective lottery players yesterday at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Howard County.

In Baltimore County It's no joke: Towson couple win $2.8 million TOWSON - When the director and an entourage from the Maryland Lottery showed up at Gwen Vaughan's house in Towson yesterday morning, everyone knew she had won $2.8 million. Everyone but her, that is. Husband Robert, 63, had kept the news a secret after receiving a telephone call from the lottery Monday. He told Gwen, 61, they had won $1,500 because their subscription ticket matched five out of six numbers in Saturday's Lotto drawing.

Oh, for the gift of prophecy yesterday, to be able to close your eyes and have these numbers come to mind: 11, 26, 30, 32, 41, 48.Instead, thousands of Marylanders had to rely on hunches, birthday combinations or in most cases the numbers randomly chosen by the Maryland Lottery's computer system as they hoped to win an $18 million Lotto jackpot -- third largest in the game's 11-year history.The big prize -- actually an annuity that would provide a single winner a before-tax payment of $900,000 a year for the next 20 years -- has been growing since March 19, when the Lotto game last had a ticket matching all six numbers.

Lottery fanatics, compulsive gamblers and people who actually return Publishers Clearing House sweepstakes entries will love keno.Serious gamblers will stay away from it. They already do in the handful of states where keno is now legal. And in Las Vegas, they consider keno beneath contempt.It's much more profitable, knowledgeable gamblers say, to play blackjack, roulette, baccarat -- anything but keno. Much better to gamble at electronic poker or to while away an afternoon with a one-armed bandit.

Two Baltimore firefighters were injured Sunday morning while battling a blaze that started when a propane tank exploded, officials said, bringing to six the number of city firefighters injured since Saturday afternoon. The injuries were not considered serious, said Capt. Roman Clark, a fire department spokesman. The city firefighters union Local 734 said on its Twitter page that firefighters were called to the 400 block of N. Luzerne St. at about 9:30 a.m. Sunday for an explosion on the rear porch of a row home.

Six people have died in Howard County motor vehicle accidents this year, five more than at the same point last year.The two latest fatal accidents occurred over the weekend: at 10: 42 p.m. Saturday at U.S. 40 and Normandy Woods Drive in Ellicott City, and at 3: 42 p.m. Sunday at Route 175 and Interstate 95 in Jessup.A man driving a 1996 Freightliner tractor east on Route 175 and nearing I-95 reportedly ran a red light and struck a 1990 Mercury on the driver's side as it was entering Route 175 from an I-95 exit ramp, police said.

RICHMOND, Va. -- An Australian syndicate that tried to corner a $27 million Virginia Lottery game handed over a pink ticket bearing the winning numbers yesterday. But state officials here said they would not pay the prize until they investigate the ticket's validity.The Lottery Department said last night that it would rule on the matter by the end of next week. Kenneth W. Thorson, the Lottery director, said that if the prize were not paid to the investment group, the money would go toward a future jackpot.

The public fascination with who won the record $587.5 million Powerball jackpot turned to Maryland on Friday, as reports surfaced that a customer at an Upper Marlboro gas station claimed he had the coveted winning ticket. Negassi Ghebre, acting manager of the Marlboro Village Exxon, said he was manning the cash register when the man walked in Thursday afternoon to check lottery tickets he had bought. "We gave him the winning numbers, then he matched them," Ghebre said. "He realized that he's the winner.

This week's Lotto jackpot will be worth $6 million, since, for the second week in a row, no player matched all six winning numbers in Saturday night's drawing, a lottery spokesman said.Eighty-six players won $1,009 each for picking five of six winning numbers, said Carroll H. Hynson Jr., the spokesman, and 4,176 won $35 each for matching four of the six numbers.The winning numbers in Saturday's drawing were 3, 5, 19, 29, 33 and 46.

The jackpot in tomorrow's drawing of the twice-weekly Maryland Lotto game has been increased to $8.5 million after Saturday's drawing failed to produce a winner.Lottery spokeswoman Elyn Garrett said the numbers drawn Saturday night were 3, 9, 15, 20, 28, 29.The lottery spokeswoman said 103 people correctly matched five of the six winning numbers; they are to collect $844 each.Another 4,817 bettors matched four of the six numbers drawn Saturday night. Each of their tickets is worth $31.Lotto sales for the drawing totaled $2,172,835.