New lottery game attracts Ohio gamblers

Joe Milicia

Thursday, May 16, 2002 | 9:42 a.m.

CLEVELAND -- The state's new Mega Millions lottery game had only been on sale for a few hours Wednesday morning when William Shaffer bought his first ticket.

"If it's more than a million, I want it," the 68-year-old Clevelander said. "If I win, then I'll take my retirement and go. If not, I keep on working."

The first drawing in Ohio's new multistate game is Friday, with a jackpot of at least $25 million. Ohio is joining the game to raise money to help patch a $1.5 billion deficit. The state hopes to raise about $41 million a year from multistate lottery sales.

As of 9 a.m. Wednesday morning, Shaffer and other Ohioans had already purchased $74,000 in Mega Millions tickets, outselling the state's Super Lotto Plus game, which sold $70,000 in tickets during the same time period, said lottery spokeswoman Mardele Cohen.

"We're extremely pleased with sales," she said.

Shaffer, who purchased his ticket at the Tower City Lottery Stop downtown where only a small sign advertised the new game, said he only played Super Lotto Plus when the jackpots got big. He said he'll probably play Mega Millions regularly because of its higher jackpots.

Mega Millions' predecessor, The Big Game, averaged jackpots of $35 million with a U.S. record $363 million jackpot in May 2000.

Tower City Lottery Stop clerk Frank Russo said he's telling his regular customers about the new game.

"Everyone's playing a dollar here, a dollar there to see what it's all about," Russo said.

Mary Elston, 58, bought $5 worth of Mega Millions tickets Wednesday morning and didn't know the Ohio Lottery was continuing to offer Super Lotto Plus.

She said the state probably will make more money because she'll now play Mega Millions and Super Lotto Plus.

Cohen said the lottery will reevaluate Super Lotto Plus in the next month and possibly drop its starting jackpot from $4 million to $1 million or $2 million.

"We are under the impression from research we have done that sales in Super Lotto will decline in some degree because of Mega Millions sales," Cohen said.

Earlier this week, a judge cleared the way for Mega Millions ticket sales by denying a request by church groups to delay Ohio's participation in new game.

Lottery opponents, who say state lotteries make money off the poor, argue that adding a multistate game makes a bad situation worse.

But supporters say the new game is needed to make Ohio's lottery profits more stable and believe participation in the multistate game will bring home some of the $200 million to $250 million Ohioans spent yearly on out-of-state lotteries.

Other states taking part in the Mega Millions game are Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York and Virginia in the Big Game.

Drawings in the $1 game are held Tuesday and Friday at 11 p.m. in Atlanta. The Ohio Lottery will continue holding its daily midday and early evening drawings Monday through Saturday.

The odds of winning in the Mega Millions game are one in 135 million compared with one in 13.9 million in Super Lotto Plus.

Mega Millions players select five numbers from one pool of numbers from 1 to 52, and an additional number from a second pool of numbers, also from 1 to 52. A player with all six numbers drawn gets the top prize, which starts at $5 million.