The Region - News from July 21, 1986

Clerks from 5,000 stores around the state are being trained in Whittier to operate the cash register-sized computers used in Lotto, said Leslie Hunter, marketing manager for GTECH, the company that manufactures the terminals. Shopkeepers at the training site said they were surprised how easy it was to operate the terminal. The instant games, in which the player scratches off a pre-printed ticket to reveal possible winning combinations, “just kind of died off,” said Rick Esse, a trainee from Los Angeles, who added that his market is selling only 500 tickets a day, down from 2,000 when the lottery first started. The new game, scheduled for sometime this fall, will allow players to pick their own six numbers between one and 49. The winning numbers will be drawn on live television on Saturday evenings.