Firms Gamble on Hitting It Big in Lottery Ticket Sales : BY JOHN NIELSEN

Tom Watson, owner of Larry’s Butcher Shop on Sepulveda Boulevard in Sepulveda, says it wasn’t his idea to apply for a license to sell tickets for the new state lottery.

“One of the girls that works here came up to me a while back and said ‘Let’s sell lottery tickets!’ ” he recalled. “I said ‘Hey, we sell meat here. We’re not a lottery business.’ ”

He is now. As of Monday, when the state released a list of California businesses that had been granted conditional licenses to sell tickets, Watson’s butcher shop became an official outlet for $1 lottery tickets scheduled for sale this fall.

After sorting through more than 26,000 applications--including the one filed by the employee at Watson’s butcher shop--lottery officials announced this week that they had authorized ticket sales at 19,825 businesses in the state. Those chosen, ranging from pawnshops to supermarkets, include 13,829 individually owned businesses and 5,996 franchises and chain outlets.

Start-Up in Fall

No exact start-up date has been set, although lottery officials hope to begin in late September or early October, after outlet operators are trained and supplied with tickets and other materials.

In the Conejo, San Fernando and Simi valleys, where more than 1,000 licenses were granted, the businesses soon to be selling the tickets include pizza, drugstore and movie theater franchises, and a variety of one-of-a-kind establishments.

The lucky winners include a Simi Valley cocktail lounge called The Playpen, a Van Nuys pawnshop, a Studio City linen and bath business and a Thousand Oaks real estate concern.

Reactions to being chosen were varied. At some of the outlets, owners and managers said they hoped that the lottery would bolster their business by drawing additional customers. Others said they sought the 5% cut from ticket sales, or got involved out of a feeling of civic duty.

“Nobody knows what will happen, but we thought it was worth a try,” said Josephine Cho, who owns the San Su Too florist shop on De Soto Avenue in Canoga Park. Cho said she applied for the license partly on a whim and partly in the hope that her 5% cut from the sale of $1 “scratch-off” game tickets would add up to something substantial.

Doreen Kropf, who manages the Studio Linen and Bath store on Ventura Boulevard, professes to have a “cautious” view of lotteries. While she says she is not interested in buying a ticket herself, she believes that some of her customers might find the lure of the lottery a little less resistible.

‘Every Walk of Life’

“You have to remember that gamblers come from every walk of life,” she explained. “We sell merchandise to everybody here. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens.”

Not everyone’s motive was a profit. Raymond Anderson, the owner of Homefinders, a Thousand Oaks real estate firm, can’t see how the lottery will have much effect on his home sales. He found the ticket outlet idea appealing because, with one-third of the proceeds earmarked for California schools, the lottery seemed like a “good cause.”

“I voted with both feet for the lottery, and I figured it might help to sell them,” he said. “But I just doubt that I’ll do enough business to hire somebody to handle it.”

Butcher shop owner Watson, who said he voted against the initiative last year that authorized the lottery, claimed to be accepting his shop’s status as an outlet with some misgivings. Like real estate salesman Anderson, he was sure that a 5% cut would do nothing for profits of his business. Watson also worries that the tickets might be sold to “some poor sap who needs the money for food.”

‘This Is Good Luck’

But for at least one area outlet owner, selection by the state was an omen. Nickie Jajko, the Playpen owner, said most of her bar’s patrons were sure that she would never get permission to sell the tickets, for reasons she says she doesn’t understand.

“But this is a perfect place to sell them,” she said. “This is good luck, if you ask me. I think I’ll buy a hundred right away.”