South Carolina posts brisk Powerball sales

Amy Geier Edgar

Monday, Oct. 7, 2002 | 9:15 a.m.

FORT MILL, S.C. -- Edwina Verbal smoothed out a piece of paper containing several combinations of numbers as she prepared to fill out her first South Carolina Powerball ticket.

The Charlotte, N.C., resident said she saw TV reports that the multimillion-dollar, multistate game was beginning in South Carolina on Saturday and decided to try her luck. She said she expects to cross the border and play whenever the jackpot skyrockets.

"Unless I win today," she smiled, "then I'll let someone else have it."

Lottery officials reported that Powerball sales were brisk in the first hour after the game began in South Carolina.

Scientific Games, the lottery's primary vendor, reported ticket sales of more than $29,000 from 11 p.m. when the tickets first went on sale to midnight, South Carolina Education Lottery spokeswoman Tara Robertson said.

At one point, lottery players purchased about 1,600 tickets a minute, Robertson said.

Across the state, lines formed at some of the 3,000 lottery outlets where Powerball tickets are being sold.

In Fort Mill, people began waiting in line at 9:30 p.m. Saturday, Robertson said. The Red Rocket Fireworks store there reported more than $700 in sales in one hour, she said. By comparison, the Smokers Express store in Columbia had about $300 in sales.

"It definitely shows that folks across the border do play our games," she said.

That was evident Sunday at the Circle K convenience store near Paramount's Carowinds, the amusement park that straddles the North Carolina-South Carolina state line.

Lee Fraser, of Asheville, N.C., came to South Carolina "for Carowinds and Powerball," she said. "I thought I'd kill two birds with one stone."

Fraser often plays the lottery in South Carolina and said she would like North Carolina lawmakers to let voters decide whether to have a lottery there. "Our state legislators don't feel we're adult enough to make a decision, apparently," she said.

Fraser's not alone. Charlotte resident Hoa Lam said it was a "bad idea" that North Carolina legislators voted down a lottery referendum last month.

"People are old enough. If they want to gamble, it's their money," he said as he bought $10 in Powerball tickets.

Fraser and Lam will find out if their trip across the border paid off when South Carolina has its first Powerball drawing 11 p.m., Wednesday. Drawings are held every Wednesday and Saturday night. On drawing days, Powerball tickets will not be sold after 9:45 p.m. to let officials balance the numbers.

No one won Saturday's drawing, so the Powerball jackpot rolls over to $36 million, Robertson said Sunday.

State lottery director Ernie Passailaigue said he anticipates high sales the first week of the new game and increased sales when the jackpot tops $100 million.

The minimum Powerball jackpot starts at $10 million, but the average advertised jackpot is $66.5 million. The largest jackpot was $295.7 million in July 1998.

Overall odds of winning a prize are 1 in 36, but odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 120 million.

Players select five numbers from 1 to 53, then pick one more number called the Powerball, which ranges from 1 to 42.

South Carolina has little nearby competition for Powerball sales. Virginia and Georgia participate in Mega Millions, formerly called Big Game. The closest Powerball states are Kentucky, West Virginia and Louisiana.

South Carolina lottery officials are counting on players from neighboring states and on tourists who normally play Powerball at home to buy tickets here. The game currently is played in 22 states, mostly in the West, Midwest and Northeast.

Despite strong sales, retailers did report some glitches as the games kicked off. Robertson said some retailers experienced a 10-minute delay in the start of sales because of software problems.

Celia Sawie, a clerk at the Circle K in Fort Mill, said her equipment was down for about 30 minutes on Sunday. Despite the technical problem, sales remained strong all day, she said.