The Associated Press
COLUMBUS -- The record $250 million jackpot offered by the multistate Powerball game is draining money away from Ohio's relatively puny $20 million Super Lotto prize.
Powerball tickets are not sold in Ohio, but are for sale just over the state line in Kentucky, Indiana and West Virginia. Both lotteries have drawings today.
Ticket sellers in downtown Cincinnati could see the impact in the modest lines outside their stores.
"They're not like they should be at $20 million. It should be slammin' right now," Fountain News clerk Tyler Borick said.
Said Helen Thomas of Skywalk Baseball: "Sales are probably about 40 percent of what they should be."
Ohio lottery spokeswoman Sandy Lesko Mounts said: "It hurts to have a jackpot this high and be the tiny kid on the block, so to speak." As of late Monday, Super Lotto sales were down by $1.2 million, compared with the amount of play a $20 million jackpot usually draws, said Gale Fisk, the lottery's deputy director of finance.
"When you see that amount of a decrease at the beginning you can usually count on it staying there," Ms. Lesko Mounts said Tuesday. "We're hoping for $6 million to $8 million (in sales), but it looks like it may be little bit below that."
