Drive-through lottery store opens

Jacob Jordan

Monday, June 28, 2004 | 8:51 a.m.

FORT MILL, S.C. -- There's no fuzzy intercom and you can't "super size" it, but a new drive-through dedicated almost entirely to selling lottery tickets has popped up near the North Carolina state line.

The DriveThru Lottery I-777 has been open about a month, selling everything from scratch-off games and Powerball tickets to cigarettes and soda. It's off Interstate 77 near the Carowinds amusement park less than a mile inside South Carolina, where the lottery is legal.

A menu board picturing some 20 scratch-off games greets customers just like a fast-food restaurant, but instead of speaking blindly into an intercom, the player drives up to the window and places an order with an attendant.

Some folks drive away before playing, while others scratch off their tickets and drive back around to collect their winnings.

"I'll come through there and cash them in next time," said Alonzo McKinney, who decided to walk into the store on a recent afternoon and buy $50 worth of $2 Weekly Bonus scratch-off games. "I just wanted to come in and see how it looked."

The inside is mostly bare with a few electronic machines that offer sweepstakes games and jackpots worth up to $1,000. There's also a television to watch the drawings and countertops where customers can sit to scratch off cards or pick numbers.

A back room offers quiet for serious players who want to think about the numbers and make calculations, said Chad Sangaree, who along with Randy Salter opened the DriveThru Lottery.

Salter, 55, owns the building and property, but Sangaree, 33, came up with the idea to convert the old bank into a drive-through lottery stand. The official grand opening is Saturday, and the owners expect to have bands, food and plenty of lottery tickets.

"The company is self-sufficient, but Randy and I haven't made any money," said Sangaree, who also works for East Coast Amusement, which owns the sweepstakes machines. "It might work out great, it might not."

Salter, who owns Carolina Boats located next to the drive-through, said customers at gas stations often become frustrated with the long lines at cash registers and having to wait behind lottery players.

He says that's why his business makes perfect sense.

And it's not the only convenience store to offer goods through a drive-through.

Two Cash & Dash stores on the South Carolina coast offered goods via drive-through before the lottery was legalized. They've added lottery tickets to the many items, including gas, they now sell.

"We do pretty good lottery business, especially on Wednesday and Saturday" because of Powerball drawings, said Michael Troupe, 33, a cashier at the Little River store.

There are drive-throughs across the country that offer lottery tickets, too. In Ohio, Your Mama's Drive-Thru offers customers everything from milk to soda to lottery tickets, but its setup is slightly different from the South Carolina stores.

"We do really good during the week," said Denise Cook, 22, who works at the Hamilton, Ohio, store. "When the Mega Millions are drawn, those are our biggest days."

Cook said drivers pull up to an open area of the store and an employee walks out to greet them, takes the order and fills it. They even place the goods into the vehicle.

The drive-through in Fort Mill is hardly as elaborate -- at least not yet.

Salter said an intercom system is in the works and the store plans to offer cruises to the Caribbean in customer drawings. The owners said they also want another ticket machine but for now lottery officials have told them they must start with just one.

State Sen. Wes Hayes, R-Rock Hill, said he doesn't have any concerns about the store but he did check with lottery officials to make sure the business was legal.

"They say that it's legal, and frankly I don't see a whole bunch of difference between a drive-through and standing in line in a convenience store," said Hayes, who fought the state lottery a few years ago.

Even with a little rain on a recent afternoon, the DriveThru Lottery attracted more walk-in business than drive-through.

Rasheda Nicholson, 27, rushed in just before the midday drawings.

Extinguishing a cigarette, the courier company owner looked at her scratch piece of paper of calculations.

Unfortunately, Nicholson couldn't get her numbers in before the deadline and she paced around the building dejected.

"I don't believe in luck. Luck is when you win the lottery and didn't buy a ticket," said Nicholson, who once won $10,000 playing Pick 3.