BY AMY BETH GRAVES
The Associated Press
CLEVELAND - The Ohio Lottery is hedging its bets.
In past years, the lottery would sometimes raise Super Lotto jackpots by $6 million as excitement built for a big prize. But as the jackpot has climbed to $32 million for today's drawing, the lottery hasn't been as generous.
That's because sales aren't strong enough to tag on an extra $2 million, said Ohio lottery spokeswoman Sandy Lesko Mounts. The last time the lottery sweetened the jackpot was in April.
"We won't add money just to jack up the jackpot unless we know sales are going to be strong enough to cover us," Ms. Mounts said. The lottery anticipates selling 8.2 million Super Lotto tickets for today's drawing, she said. That's fewer than were sold in April when 8.6 million tickets were sold for a $30 million jackpot.
"Lately sales have been so flat," Ms. Mounts said. "People have become so numb to jackpot sizes. You have to get to $30 million to get people interested."
The days of long lottery lines in Ohio are gone - they're all in Indiana, Kentucky and West Virginia where stores sell Powerball tickets, the multistate game with monster payouts. Thirteen residents from the Columbus area claimed the game's record $295.7 million jackpot in July.
"Everybody goes over the border to play Powerball. That's where you get the really big jackpots," said Sharon Mladoniczky, 47, who sells lottery tickets at Arcade News in downtown Cleveland.
Super Lotto and Pick 3 games have dropped in popularity over the last five years while sales of instant scratch-off tickets have taken off, Ms. Mounts said. In 1993 Super Lotto sales totaled $493.4 million compared to $410.5 million last year. Instant ticket sales were up to $1.1 million last year compared to $775,691 five years ago.
"Instant games are our bread-and-butter now," Ms. Mounts said. "We always sell those tickets really well and now we're hoping to get a boost from the holidays with the Christmas instant tickets and a large Super Lotto jackpot."
Gina Broschk, 21, who runs the lottery machine at Tower City Drug, said Friday that Super Lotto sales were the strongest she's seen all year.
"People have been coming in buying $200 and $300 worth of tickets at a time," she said. "It's been crazy."
Ms. Broschk said another strong sell has been the lottery's $10 Stocking Stuffer ticket. She said people are snatching up the tickets to put in Christmas stockings.
"The holiday instant tickets are a gift to players," Ms. Mounts said. "They have a payout of 75 percent compared to 55 to 60 percent for the everyday instant tickets."
Jarod Scott, 23, was counting on the higher odds when he bought a $10 Stocking Stuffer ticket at Tower City Drug.
"I'm just about broke from Christmas shopping," he said.
