Merchants Line Up to Take a Chance on Selling Lottery Tickets

The line curled down Front Street in the cool and early morning gray. About 50 business owners ignored the Friday overcast to wait anxiously for the State Office Building’s 8 o’clock opening so they could snatch up application forms for selling tickets to the California State Lottery.

“It reminded me of those . . . lines at the Department of Motor Vehicles,” snorted Pete Case, district administrator of the San Diego office of the state Department of Alcohol Beverage Control, which is distributing the forms along with the local office of the state Board of Equalization.

The two offices have had no role in developing the lottery, and were used only as clearinghouses for distributing the applications, which were available for the first time Friday. As a result, there were headaches galore.

“The telephone traffic in this office today has been outrageous, and this really isn’t our bailiwick,” Case said, “so we couldn’t answer questions. It’s been a hectic day.”

In all, about 8,000 applications will be dispensed from the two state offices in downtown San Diego, and more than half of those were gone by late Friday afternoon. Case and Michael Littrell, in the Board of Equalization office down the hall from ABC, said the supply of forms likely will be exhausted by Wednesday. After the local supply runs dry, applications will be available only by mail from the California Lottery Commission.

Littrell was braced for an onslaught at the Board of Equalization office, but he said the crowd Friday was “a little smaller than we anticipated. Even still, our 3,600 forms probably will be gone early next week. Lots of people are picking them up by the handfuls.”

The Lottery Commission recently mailed 225,000 letters to owners of retail businesses throughout the state seeking applicants from prospective ticket sellers.

The letter stated: “Our goal is to establish a retailer network representing all segments of California’s diverse geographic and ethnic mix to provide broad availability of tickets so that everyone in our state has an opportunity to play the games.”

Judging from the stream of prospective ticket-sellers in downtown San Diego, that goal should easily be attainable.

Liquor and grocery store owners prevailed, but a diverse group of retailers was present. Most were more interested in the extra business they hoped would be generated by selling lottery tickets, although retailers will receive a 5% commission on each ticket sold.

Dale Durbin, owner of the Kitchen Design Center on El Cajon Boulevard, said he hoped to have an application accepted by the Lottery Commission, because it would attract foot traffic to his store.

“You might not expect to find these (lottery tickets) at a kitchen remodeling and appliance store, but it could prove to be a good attraction,” Durbin said. “Who knows--maybe somebody will win and decide to invest his windfall right in my shop. And, at the very least, people who come in to buy a lottery ticket are bound to do some browsing.”

Virginia Salazar, who works in the state building, picked up applications for a friend who owns liquor stores in San Diego and Brawley. “He’s sure it’s a natural for his stores,” Salazar said. “Selling the tickets can’t help but boost his business. Liquor stores seem like the logical place to buy the tickets.”