Lottery wants its Pick 3 fans playing more

Starting Monday, North Carolina's lottery will begin a 3 p.m. drawing to attract more people to a low-stakes game that is a consistent money-maker, the Carolina Pick 3.

The Pick 3 brings in relatively little revenue, $3 million, in its best week. But it offers something other games don't: a loyal fan base willing to spend the 50 cents or a dollar to play.

Lottery officials don't study who plays the games, but they know that unlike scratch-off games and Powerball, sales of Pick 3 don't rise and fall with jackpots. That's because Pick 3 offers the same top prize -- $500 -- every time.

"It's the one game that probably has a defined, loyal following," said lottery director Tom Shaheen.

The lottery has struggled to meet revenue projections since tickets first went on sale in 2006. Critics say a second drawing is an attempt to sucker people out of more money.

"It's what we've anticipated all along," said John Rustin, vice president of the N.C. Family Policy Council, a nonprofit, nonpartisan group that worked against the lottery legislation. "It's kind of the continual progression of the lottery adding more ways for people to gamble in an attempt to separate the citizens of the state from their hard-earned dollars."

Frequent Pick 3 players, though, welcomed the news.

$90 a week

Regina Gilchrist plays the same three numbers five times a day, six days a week. For Gilchrist, who makes about $75 a day as a babysitter, that's $90 a week on a game whose top payout is $500.

"I'm just trying to hit some money," Gilchrist said Friday. "You know, I got three boys."

Though she has never won, Gilchrist figures she'll increase her purchases starting Monday: $15 for the new daytime drawing and $15 more for the one at night.

Gilchrist buys her tickets at the New Bern Mini Mart, a convenience store at the corner of New Bern Avenue and Carver Street in Raleigh that is a top seller of Pick 3 tickets in the Triangle.

Mohammad Abuziad, who runs the store, said he has several regulars who play the same numbers each day. He keeps copies of their tickets by the cash register to speed things along so that customers buying snacks and drinks don't have to wait.

Everyday people

"Every day they come," Abuziad said. "This way we just have to run the card."

Abuziad said Pick 3 is popular because it's cheap, it's easy to play and the chances of winning seem higher than in some other games.

Patricia Brown, a Wake County schools cafeteria worker, said she plays Pick 3 once or twice a week, along with other lottery games. She said she spends a total of about $10 at different stores. Brown said she might play more after the lottery doubles the number of Pick 3 drawings.

In the game, players try to match three digits. Players win more if their digits match in exact order, but players can choose to try to match in any order. The new 3 p.m. drawing will join the 11:22 p.m. drawing six days a week -- the daytime drawing takes a break on Sunday. Tickets are good for only one drawing, so players will have to buy twice to play both.

Virginia and South Carolina already hold a second daily drawing. Shaheen said Pick 3 players in North Carolina have asked lottery officials to add it.

Pick 3 doesn't make as much for the state as the lottery's other games. In January, the lottery sold $79 million for all games. Pick 3 accounted for 15 percent of those sales, while scratch-off tickets accounted for 58 percent, according to lottery figures.

Playing other games

Julius Richardson, a retired lumber company worker, said he played Pick 3 frequently when he moved to Apex from Illinois last year. But he never won, so now he puts his $10 a week in lottery spending on the two weekly Powerball drawings.

"I probably wouldn't play it," he said of the added Pick 3. "I didn't do very good with the first one."

Shaheen said the lottery exists to raise money for educational programs and that players should not play to excess.

"We offer the games the public want," he said, "and hope that players are responsible and will play within their means."