Lottery chief hopes jackpot in state spurs sales

“I think having a Tennessee jackpot winner will excite folks,” said Rebecca Paul, president and CEO of the state lottery, referring to Wednesday night’s $25.5 million win by a family from South Pittsburg, Tenn.

The award was shared by the Richie and Bobbi Hubbard family that owns an auto parts store in the small Marion County town.

And there were other big winners in the state that day.

There were 12 Tennesseans who matched all five of the game’s white balls. Usually, that means a payout of $100,000. But five of those winners pocketed a half-million dollars each because they chose the “power play” option, which multiplies the winnings from two to five times.

“All in all, it was a really good day for us,” she said.

Lottery players say the recent winner was on their minds.

“I’m glad a Tennessean won it, but I’d be playing it anyway. I keep playing the same numbers, figuring they’ve got to come up at some time,” said of Jim Roberts of Gladeville as he bought a few scratch-off lottery tickets at the Raceway gas station in Lebanon.

Lottery officials have also blamed some of the decline in ticket sales for the multistate Powerball on the fact the jackpot hasn’t been climbing very high in recent months.

When the jackpot spirals upward, ticket sales pick up, they said.

“But it all goes in cycles. When you have so many winners in a row, you know it’s going to lead to some huge jackpots in the future. It runs in cycles,” Paul said.

She said Powerball sales account for about 5 percent of the $246 million raised for scholarships and after-school programs between January 2004 and the same month this year.

“Powerball has done a really good job for us thus far and has been an important part of our ability to raise dollars for education. For its first year of operation we think it’s directly on track,” she said.

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Information from: The Tennessean, http://www.tennessean.com