Lottery Tickets

"I waited a whole week," said Gov. William Donald Schaefer, "for somebody to rush in with a new source of revenue, and there was no one who rushed to me and said, 'I can figure out a way to get you the 10 or 15 million.' " That's why he voted to approve the purchase of 300 vending machines that dispense $1 and $2 scratch-off lottery tickets.It is a lame excuse, but the same one Mr. Schaefer used previously to explain other efforts to implement new games of chance in Maryland: The state needs the money.

The public fascination with who won the record $587.5 million Powerball jackpot turned to Maryland on Friday, as reports surfaced that a customer at an Upper Marlboro gas station claimed he had the coveted winning ticket. Negassi Ghebre, acting manager of the Marlboro Village Exxon, said he was manning the cash register when the man walked in Thursday afternoon to check lottery tickets he had bought. "We gave him the winning numbers, then he matched them," Ghebre said. "He realized that he's the winner.

Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke is considering several options for weathering Baltimore's fiscal crisis, including seeking a 10-cent surcharge on state lottery tickets and reducing the city's $39 million-a-year contribution to the city employee retirement systems.The city faces a $16.1 million budget gap for the fiscal year that begins in July.Schmoke is proposing that a dime be added to the price of lottery tickets sold in the city for one year. The added revenue from the lottery surcharge, estimated at $19 million, would be used for law enforcement.

Nicholas Ruth's lottery ticket held the winning numbers for a Mega Millions second-tier prize — $250,000 — and he didn't even know it. The Towson resident bought a ticket was at 7-Eleven, on Loch Raven Boulevard, and didn't check his numbers until late Saturday night. Even then, he wasn't sure. "I checked it about eight times before I realized all the numbers matched," Ruth said. "My mom checked it another 15 times. We got all excited and started jumping up and down. " He then called his brother at 1:30 a.m. The Archbishop Curley High graduate started buying lottery tickets every Tuesday and Friday when he turned 18. Winning was never a possibility, he thought, but it was the idea that kept him hooked.

Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke, feeling political heat from a rising homicide rate and a wave of armed robberies, proposed yesterday a 10-cent surcharge on lottery tickets sold in Baltimore to raise money to upgrade the Police Department's crime-fighting ability."

If the lottery ticket you buy today looks different from the one you bought yesterday, you're seeing the results of a $65 million contract for new technology designed to give you more ways to play.The new lottery computer system, designed by GTECH Corp., officially goes on line today after a bitter, politically tinged lobbying campaign that unseated longtime lottery vendor Control Data Corp.The changeover began June 27 when a handful of new ticket machines went on line from Maryland to GTECH's West Greenwich, R.I., headquarters on a test basis.

While the view from Maryland's treasury building may be gloomy in almost every other direction, the skies over the state Lottery Agency are sunny.Lottery officials reported today that sales of lottery tickets were up more than $19.5 million through the first seven months of the 1991 fiscal year, a jump of 4.3 percent.After prize winners, lottery agents and employees take their cut, the state can claim almost $6.3 million in added revenues, an increase of 3.3 percent.Lottery spokesman Carroll H. Hynson Jr. said Marylanders are buying more lottery tickets, despite the recession, because "it's a form of recreation."

A Baltimore man was sentenced to serve two years in prison yesterday after he pleaded guilty to stealing and cashing two winning lottery tickets worth $7,500.Eric Williams, 26, of the 4800 block of Gilray Drive had been charged in August with setting up the scheme to steal winning lottery tickets with the help of a Maryland State Lottery Agency employee, according to the state attorney general's office.Baltimore Circuit Judge Elsbeth Levy Bothe sentenced Williams to five years in prison, with three years suspended, and required him to pay back the $7,500.

The public fascination with who won the record $587.5 million Powerball jackpot turned to Maryland on Friday, as reports surfaced that a customer at an Upper Marlboro gas station claimed he had the coveted winning ticket. Negassi Ghebre, acting manager of the Marlboro Village Exxon, said he was manning the cash register when the man walked in Thursday afternoon to check lottery tickets he had bought. "We gave him the winning numbers, then he matched them," Ghebre said. "He realized that he's the winner.

Despite a sluggish economy that has many consumers pinching pennies, Marylanders are still willing to pony up a buck for a chance to win big. For the 15th consecutive year, the Maryland Lottery reported an increase in ticket sales, pumping more money than ever into the state treasury. Maryland sold $1.795 billion in lottery tickets during fiscal 2012 — $80.4 million more than the prior year, the state lottery agency announced Monday. The lottery contributed $556 million to the state's operations, 7 percent more than last year, and was the state's fourth-largest source of revenue, after sales, income and corporate taxes.

Despite a sluggish economy that has many consumers pinching pennies, Marylanders are still willing to pony up a buck for a chance to win big. For the 15th consecutive year, the Maryland Lottery reported an increase in ticket sales, pumping more money than ever into the state treasury. Maryland sold $1.795 billion in lottery tickets during fiscal 2012 — $80.4 million more than the prior year, the state lottery agency announced Monday. The lottery contributed $556 million to the state's operations, 7 percent more than last year, and was the state's fourth-largest source of revenue, after sales, income and corporate taxes.

Another rumor that the Mega Millions winner from Maryland had been identified — this time as a Glen Burnie man named Michael Dronet — began swirling around the Internet on Tuesday after his mother told a media outlet in Mississippi her son had won. But by Wednesday, Dronet said he was not one of the winners of Friday's $656 million jackpot — and his mother, Linda Bobo, didn't know what to make of his story. "I don't have any idea," she said when reached by phone, sounding upset.

Pink slime notwithstanding, sometimes the only fast food that will satisfy is a McDonald's hamburger. So, I said to myself, why not make a 25-mile round-trip drive from downtown to a McDonald's in Baltimore County to satisfy my craving. And where I might find, among the spent ketchup packs and straw papers, a lottery ticket worth $200 million and change. That's where a Baltimore woman told The New York Post she hid one of the three winning tickets to last week's $656 million Mega Millions drawing.

Are you rich beyond your wildest dreams? The winning numbers for the $640 million Mega Millions jackpot are: 2, 4, 23, 38, 46 and Mega Ball 23. If no winner is named, the jackpot will rise to $975 million, but lottery officials said they would know if someone had won before the night is through. All week, Baltimore has been abuzz about the record-breaking jackpot and on Friday the excitement peaked. On his way out the door at the 7-Eleven on W. 33 r d Street and Keswick Road on Friday, a man looked over his shoulder and told Sara Mathes that he'd wish her luck on Mega Millions, but, you know, "I want to win. " Mathes of Charles Village and her friend, Jessica Vezendy of Middletown, Del., were part of the frenzy across Maryland for a chance at the $640 million Mega Millions jackpot, which grew by $100 million since Thursday.

Even a lottery official, a woman who spends her days dealing in hundreds, thousands and, yes, millions, was having a hard time Thursday getting her head around this monstrous number: $540 million. "It's hard to even fathom this kind of money," said Maryland Lottery spokeswoman Carole Everett as the jackpot for Friday's Mega Millions drawing, already high, soared yet higher, breaking records. "It's insane. It's all that anyone is talking about. Everywhere," she says. It's true.

One can scarcely blame officials at the Maryland State Lottery Agency for showing interest in the potential revenue that could be generated by selling their traditional products online. Agency employees are paid to look for ways to maximize lottery earnings, and there's no denying that betting on the various drawings would increase if they were just a point and click away. In a recent lottery agency report to the Maryland General Assembly, there's even a revenue estimate: 12-18 percent sales growth (which amounts to $200 to $300 million annually, and one suspects that's on the conservative side)

A major convenience store chain has stopped selling Maryland lottery tickets, but officials don't expect the decision to have much impact on state revenue.Wawa food stores discontinued lottery sales in Maryland, Delaware and Pennsylvania on Friday. The 496-store chain, which is based in suburban Philadelphia, sold tickets in 62 stores, including 17 in Maryland.Lori Bruce, a Wawa spokeswoman, said company officials wanted outlets to put greater emphasis on food sales and quicker transactions.

Baltimore must be a very generous place, because just about everybody who was asked said they'd share the $242 million Mega-Million lottery prize if they happened to be the lucky winner in Friday night's drawing. However, no one won Friday night's drawing, so the prize will be $290 million on Tuesday. The estimated cash out payment is $182.6 million. But on Friday, Rick Tamborine, who was busy selling lottery tickets at the Royal Farms in Hampden, said, "I'd take a trip to the moon" if he won. He'd purchased $20 worth himself.

Three pharmacies, Burke's, in Reisterstown, Burke's, in Parkville, and Chestnut AID Pharmacy, in Hampden, are closing. It's not the economy, said Pat Burke, who owns all three. "It's just time," said Burke, 47. "I'm tired. " He said it is hard to keep up with government and insurance regulations that change and get tougher every year, and that insurance companies are increasingly pushing customers toward mail order pharmacies or chains "that they're in bed with. " He's not selling the three stores because, "It's hard to sell independent drugstores, especially three.

While it is nice to see President Barack Obama talk to the American people more ("Obama calls GOP bluff," July 12), I don't think he has the mix right and speaks condescendingly toward us about the deficit. I am a Republican who is constantly reconsidering becoming an independent due to its leadership of both the House and Senate. I do my best to eat my peas — and mind my Qs — but I find it humorous to be lectured about corporate jet owners from the president when he and his family appear to be the biggest jet users around (and not on corporate money, but paid by the taxpayers)