The Oregon lottery’s first day of ticket...

The Oregon lottery’s first day of ticket sales for bets tied to NBA games got off to what the head of the lottery said was an expected slow start.

Lottery Director Jim Davey said sales were fairly light for the Sports Action game, which until now had been limited to professional football bets.

The lottery commission voted to add NBA contests to the game over the league’s protest. Davey said betting in the sports game picks up as the weekend approaches. And he said this week might not be a good one to measure sales because substantial numbers of people are off work between the holidays.