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Winning number matches that of doomed flight

Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2001 | 9:45 a.m.

TRENTON, N.J. -- In a morbid coincidence, the winning number in one of the New Jersey Lottery's games Monday was the same as the number of the American Airlines flight that crashed in Queens, N.Y., earlier in the day: 587.

So many lottery players chose the number for tickets for the evening Pick 3 drawing that the payout was unusually low, just $16 for a straight match. On a typical day, the straight bet payout for Pick 3 is $275, lottery officials said.

Gamblers are superstitious people, and compulsive gamblers who are in recovery often seize on such numbers in hopes of improving their luck, according to Edward Looney, executive director of the Council on Compulsive Gambling of New Jersey.

"With recovering gamblers, a lot of them believe God has directed them, given them a way to get out of their dilemma, and they do it through tragedies sometimes," Looney said.

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