Lottery Opens Today; State Rushes to Get Tickets Out
California Lottery officials were scrambling over back country roads and into the hearts of big cities late Wednesday, trying to reach thousands of retailers who were still without tickets, causing confusion and worry that some would-be lottery sellers will be out of luck when the games officially begin at 12:30 p.m. today.
“It could be as high as 5% to 10% (of the retailers) who won’t get tickets,” statewide distribution manager Jerry Bentley said in a telephone interview from his Sacramento office. “But we’re shooting for 100% to get them.”
Bentley added that, given the enormity of the task of trying to reach 20,000 retailers in every corner of the state, missing “10% would be excellent.”
Most of the delays were blamed by officials on breakdowns in computers that record orders and invoices.
Spot checks by Times reporters in Los Angeles found a number of retailers still waiting for the their allotment of $1 instant “scratch-off” tickets by late Wednesday. Several retailers also had not received special rubber stamps that lottery rules require them to use on each ticket sold.
In Orange County, about 250 of the 2,200 lottery retailers still had not received tickets by Wednesday afternoon, lottery regional manager James Braxton said.
The Anaheim lottery office was getting “hundreds of calls an hour”--at least half of them from retailers who said they had not gotten tickets, lottery receptionist Ellen Heard said.
“I have advertising already. I have everything except the tickets. . . . Yesterday I called three times and . . . nobody can do anything,” complained Anaheim market manager Chin-do Lee. Lottery officials told him they could not help him “until we get this computer fixed.”
Retailers standing in line for information at the San Diego lottery office said they had not received tickets, despite having all their paper work in order. And the story was the same as in Orange County: Lottery officials said computer problems could hold up deliveries until today.
In San Francisco, about 15% to 20% of that area’s 2,300 retailers were without tickets Wednesday afternoon, but lottery district manager Al Frazier remained optimistic. “In a start-up situation, some people have to suffer, but it’s under control,” he said. Frazier’s computer also was not operating Wednesday.
More computer glitches were suffered in the mountain areas of Northern California.
“Basically, the problems have been with the computers--getting the system to take orders and feed out invoices,” said Sandy Jones, the lottery’s regional manager in Redding. Jones was dispatching workers all day Wednesday with ticket deliveries to such outposts as Hayfork, Mad River and Happy Camp.
Dismissing the problems as “normal” and “minimal,” most of the state’s lottery hierarchy was concentrating on the glitzy start-up of the state’s new phenomenon.
Noontime Extravaganzas
With advertising promising more riches than the Gold Rush, the lottery--expected to gross $1.4 billion in its first year--is being be launched with noontime extravaganzas in Los Angeles, San Diego, Sacramento and San Francisco.
Despite lopsided odds--there is a five times greater chance of dying of snakebite than of winning the lottery’s $2-million jackpot--millions are expected to play the long-delayed games.
Today’s scratch-off gamblers will be fulfilling a wish they expressed at the ballot box last November by passing Proposition 37, the lottery initiative, by a 58%-42% margin. Under the initiative, 50% of the gross will be used for prizes, 34% will support public education and the remaining 16% will pay for administration and promotion.
It all begins today with a million-dollar bang.
Lottery officials have spent that much or more on today’s kickoff rites, hoping to create enormous first-day sales. Special ticket kiosks will line the edges of opening ceremonies to snare the early cash.
Some Californians, however, are not dazed by lottery fever.
The governor won’t play. A staunch lottery foe, George Deukmejian said people would suspect “irregularities” if he won. Neither will Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley. “No!” said Bradley, another longtime opponent of state-run gambling operations, when asked if he intends to buy a ticket.
‘I’m Staying Out’
State Supt. of Public Instruction Bill Honig also will pass on the lottery. He said the 34% of lottery profits that will go to the schools is a pittance compared to mounting costs.
“I’m staying out of it,” Honig said. “If we get a percentage, fine, but I want to keep things in perspective. This only gives us one-sixth to one-seventh of what we need just to keep reforms in the quality of education going.” Honig said that although schools could get about $475 million from the lottery the first year, “we need $1.2 billion just to keep even with inflation.” The current state school budget is $15.2 billion.
Another boycotter is Harvey N. Chinn, who fought the lottery initiative last year as director of the church-oriented Coalition Against Legalized Lotteries, a principal opponent of the lottery.
Chinn, who suggested that the state chose Oct. 3 to start the lottery because that is shortly after welfare and Social Security checks are mailed, summarized one of the chief complaints against the lottery--that it exploits the poor. “Lotteries sell fantasies. Citizens who can afford it the least will spend their pension and welfare checks on tickets that offer a one-in-a-million hope of escaping their poverty,” he said in an interview. “Millions of dollars that should be spent on food, clothing and shelter will be spent on lottery tickets.”
Others, including Archbishop Roger M. Mahony, leader of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles, hope to beat the odds. The archbishop said he will buy a ticket “from time to time with the hope of winning to use the money for our Catholic schools.”
In Los Angeles today, a circus-like parade of bands, jugglers, unicyclists and Chinese dancers will wend its way through downtown, ending at the Music Center for noon speeches by education officials and lottery director Mark Michalko, the 31-year-old self-described workaholic who has apparently kept the games free of crime if not free of several months of costly delays.
At 12:30 p.m., 100,000 orange and green balloons will flood the October skies to signal the first lottery sales, although several retailers dampened the kickoff when they began selling tickets as early as a week ago.
The lottery also will sponsor a 7:30 p.m. revue at the Hollywood Bowl, featuring Steve Allen and other show business personalities and some of the same kinds of fireworks and laser displays used at the Olympic Games last year. Today’s showy inaugural will be a contrast to the somewhat sluggish progress of the lottery since being approved by voters last Nov. 6.
The initiative mandated the governor to appoint a five-member Lottery Commission and a lottery director by early December. Instead, it was almost February by the time the governor named the five commissioners, with Deukmejian explaining that he was doing thorough background checks to ensure that no nominee had underworld connections.
Delayed Since March
Under terms of the initiative, the games were supposed to begin almost seven months ago, on March 21. At that point, however, there was not only no games, there was still no director. At least two people turned the governor down--one because the $73,780-per-year salary was too low. And the governor’s office misplaced the letter of another interested candidate for several months.
By the time Michalko was named in May, the contract for the instant tickets had not even been awarded. That was accomplished in June--but not without controversy. Scientific Games Inc., a division of Bally Manufacturing Corp., got the $40-million contract; it was the only qualified bidder.
The initiative included a requirement that all officials of the lottery operating firm file extensive financial disclosures with the state. That was easy for officials of Scientific Games, because Bally had to do the same thing to get a casino license in Atlantic City, N.J. Other companies, however, were discouraged from bidding by the complicated disclosure requirements.
Scientific Games also virtually bankrolled the yes-on-Proposition 37 campaign, contributing $2.1 million of the $2.4 million spent.
‘Cautious’ Approach
Amid all the controversy, Michalko insisted on a “cautious” approach through the summer. He said he would err on the side of tardiness to ensure that the California Lottery operates properly when it finally operates. It took time, he said, to start up the largest lottery in the world.
With an expected gross sales of $1.4 billion in its first year, the California Lottery will rank 225th among Fortune 500 businesses for sales and 28th for profits.
Nearly 6,000 outlets will provide tickets in Los Angeles County, the state’s most populous county. There will be only one county with no outlets--Alpine, in the Sierra Nevada south of Lake Tahoe--the least-populated in the state. No business there applied for a lottery license, although officials are trying to lure one.
Times staff writers Sebastian Dortch and Michael Seiler in Los Angeles, Lanie Jones in Orange County and Jim Schachter in San Diego contributed to this story.
HOW TO PLAY THE CALIFORNIA LOTTERY
For the first six months,the lottery will rely on instant, “scratch-off”games, which can be purchased for $1 at any of 20,000 retailers around the state.
The California state lottery officially opens today at 12:30 p.m. The state will print 400 million tickets. Of those, 354,945,000 will be losers. Here’s how to play:
For the first several months, the lottery will rely on instant, “scratch-off” games, which can be purchased for $1 at any of 20,000 retailers around the state.
The California state lottery officially opens today at 12:30 p.m. The state will print 400 million tickets. Of those, 354,945,000 will be losers. Here’s how to play:
1. INSTANT WINNERS. Players scratch off all six spots. If three of them show the same amount, the player wins that amount. Prizes are $2, $5, $100, $500, $1,000 and $5,000.
2. COLLECTING THE CASH Winners of $2 and $5 prizes will redeem them from the retailers who sold the ticket. Winners of larger prizes must mail in a claims form available from retailers and the lottery commission.
3. BIGGER WINNERS Winners of $100 prizes will be eligible for a drawing for bigger prizes. Every week, ten $100 winners will be selected for a televised “jackpot” game that has a minimum prize of $10,000. Those selected will spin a large wheel for prizes of $10,000, $50,000, $100,000 and $2 million. The telecasts will be on Monday night on a special network. Locally, it will be broadcast on KABC in Los Angeles and KGTV in San Diego.
4. THE ODDS The odds of winning $2 are 10 to 1; odds of winning $100 are 4,000 to 1; odds of winning $5,000 are 40,000 to 1. The odds of winning $2 million are 25 million to 1.