Border states report increased lotto sales
Lotteries in Georgia, Kentucky and Virginia all have experienced rises in ticket sales since Tennessee launched its own Jan. 20 with four scratchoff games.
In Georgia, the lottery sold more than $62 million in tickets for the week ending Feb. 8 — besting the same week last year by about $1.2 million, spokesman J.B. Landroche said.
“That was our highest sales week in over a year and a half,” he said.
Georgia also just completed its most successful first six months of a fiscal year to date — putting the games more than $78 million ahead of sales compared with the same point last fiscal year, Landroche added.
“Each week has been a little bit higher than the last,” he said. “Just because a border state has started doesn’t mean a state’s lottery sales will decline. When South Carolina started (in 2002), our sales also increased.”
In Virginia, sales for the week ending Feb. 8 increased by more than $5 million over last year, with ticket sales along the Tennessee border jumping by about $500,000, spokesman Ed Scarborough said.
Scarborough says some of that increase may have come from hype surrounding the start of the Tennessee games.
“The talk at the water coolers about the Tennessee Lottery may have spilled over to us,” he said.
Although Kentucky experienced a $4,000 dip in sales during the Tennessee games’ first week, the games there saw ticket sales surge by more than $1 million in the week of Feb. 8 compared with the same time last year.
But it’s a jump Kentucky officials aren’t expecting to last.
“Over time we expect those numbers to deteriorate by as much as $70 (million) to $75 million (a year),” spokesman Chip Polston said.
Lotteries bordering Tennessee have one advantage, at least temporarily, over the games here — and that’s participation in one of the two high-jackpot multistate games.
Both Georgia and Virginia are members of Mega Millions, which had a jackpot that reached $177 million Monday, while Kentucky and Missouri — which also borders Tennessee — participate in Powerball, which had a $26 million jackpot as of Monday.
The Georgia Lottery is taking advantage of its Mega Millions membership by advertising the games on billboards near the Tennessee-Georgia line in Chattanooga.
Tennessee plans to join one of the multistate games in early summer, officials have said. In the meantime, it will begin its own pingpong-style drawing game, called Cash 3, early next month.
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On the Net:
Tennessee Lottery, www.tnlottery.com