When Florida kicked off its lottery, it featured a 30-second television commercial of a man lounging poolside and being slowly surrounded by alligators.
“Before long, the state of Florida will be overrun with a different kind of greenbacks,” the announcer said. A startup date on Florida’s lottery was then flashed on the screen.
Given sales figures released by Florida Lottery Director Rebecca Paul last week, state residents, tourists, servicemen and border state residents have a grip on the games as strong as those alligators’ jaws.
By Tuesday, the six-month anniversary of the lottery, ticket sales figures are expected to be about $750 million, Paul said.
“We’ve had a tremendous six months. It’s been exciting here. It’s been exciting for the people of Florida,” she said.
The first week’s sales of 95 million instant tickets set the national record for a startup, and while six months is considered too short a time for an accurate measurement of a lottery’s success, the kudos are coming in.
“The lottery is in business to make money for the state, and they are doing it in spades,” said J. Blaine Lewis Jr., Connecticut’s lottery director and president of the North American Association of State and Provincial Lotteries.
“If those numbers are accurate, the thing is a smash,” said Paul Dworin, editor of Gaming and Wagering Business, a New York-based trade publication.
That’s not to say the Florida lottery has been perfect, or hasn’t had a few negative side effects.
Computer flaws have angered players and retailers, costing sales. Some people have been arrested for stealing tickets or attempting to forge instant tickets into winners.
Retailers have overcharged the lottery for payouts. Other ticket sellers wonder if they will get more than 5 cents per ticket to cover their costs.
The new millionaires have had to change phone numbers and fend off charity callers and would-be investors.
And while education receives 35 percent of the money, education officials say it is arguable whether money going for school district payrolls can be considered an enhancement, the term used to sell the state’s residents on the lottery.
Education Commissioner Betty Castor said the publicity about the large prize winnings may have misled the public into thinking there is a lot more money going toward education than there really is.
“There is a perception the lottery dollars are going further than they are,” Castor said. “If we had to depend on the lottery to run our public schools, it would pay for five days. It is 3 percent of our budget.
“On the other hand, when you say you are getting $300 million (from the lottery), it’s hard to say it doesn’t count for anything,” she added.
Overall, the lottery has given rise to hope and dreams.
Hank Kubetz, a Hollywood resident and the restaurant kitchen manager who with a co-worker bought the state’s first $5,000 instant lottery ticket, says it is as simple as the common worker, making the common wage, looking to hit it big.
“If it hits, you are a millionaire. If not, you’ve lost a dollar,” Kubetz said.
“It’s hope. And for a couple minutes you can figure out how to spend your million if you win. You’d straighten out your family and do some nice things. Then you’d do things for yourself. Then invest. Then you wouldn’t have to work hard the rest of your life. It’s the good old all-American dream,” he said.
The Florida lottery, like other lotteries, has resulted in a clash of American values, according to Ken Wilson, an associate professor in sociology and social psychology at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton.
“What got America going? The old work ethic. You are supposed to be thrifty, save money. Now what’s the lottery saying instead? ‘Win the lottery and consume the rest of your life.”‘ Wilson said.
“Remember when people used to tinker in their basements and make something and make a million dollars? Well now, it’s Lotto,” Wilson said.
If Floridians weren’t convinced they were in for adventure with the lottery, they should have been when the first $1 million grand-prize drawing produced a winner by the name of Tom Sawyer.
Even more bizarre was that Sawyer opposed the lottery and actually entered the drawing with a ticket he found in front of his St. Petersburg paint store. He kept his winnings.
Cash 3 and Lotto started April 29, the fastest on-line games start after an instant game start in the history of state lotteries.
The biggest Lotto payoff went to a Port Charlotte office manager. She won $14 million.
The second-highest winner, at $10.5 million, was a New Jersey tourist who dreamed his dead daughter told him to play the lottery.
Lotto and Cash 3 sales have exceeded $135 million but computer problems have plagued the on-line system. First, only two-thirds of the 3,142 machines that were supposed to work the first day actually did.
And one day, nearly $550,000 in sales of Cash 3, the daily drawing game, was lost by a computer failure that knocked computers out for hours.
Control Data Corp., the company supplying and running the system in return for 2.89 percent of the sales, agreed to a $2 million penalty and donated $525,000 in computers, used as educational tools in the state’s elementary schools.
Some retailers, like Kings Point Discount Drugs west of Delray Beach, say they were promised to be on-line from the start but still aren’t.
“My viewpoint is, ‘Look how much more money they could be making,”‘ said Gary Einhorn, the pharmacist and owner of the drugstore. “There are old people here in the area that can’t get out.” He hopes to be on-line by Thursday.
Some letter writers have suggested that there be $1-million-dollar winners instead of multi-million-dollar winners in Lotto.
Paul said she has no plans to change the game, however, noting it is the large payoff that creates the interest. “They may write letters, but they still buy more tickets the larger the jackpot.”
She did say that once initial costs involved in starting the lottery are absorbed, retailers will likely get more than their 5 cents per ticket commission, as is the case in other states.
By law, the lottery can only spend 15 percent of its money on administration, because 50 percent is paid back to players. The rest goes to the state’s education fund.
LOTTERY SPENDING
Here is how the Florida Legislature designated lottery money for 1988-1989. The total is 3 percent of state education budget:
Public Schools* $260 million
Community Colleges $38 million
State Universities $22 million
Total $320 million
* Includes $23 million for pre-kindergarten education for economically disadvantaged 4-year-olds. Programs administered by school districts.
SOURCE: Florida Education Commisioner Betty Castor
