Business Notes LOTTERIES

For players of Montana's Big Spin lottery game, lady luck went on vacation and never came back. In Big Spin, the state chooses three people each week from among thousands of losing lottery ticket holders and gives them a chance to win a $1 million jackpot by whirling the Big Spin wheel. But in 222 tries over the past 18 months, no one has hit the jackpot. Officials added a second $1 million slot to the 100-slot wheel, but to no avail. Without a big winner to hype, ticket sales have dropped from $23 million in fiscal 1988 to $11.2 million in 1989.

Is the big wheel fixed? Evidently not: the jackpot has turned up several times in practice runs. Perhaps lottery officials should talk to Vanna White for a few tips.