Despite soaring gas and food prices and a struggling economy, the state Lottery Commission thinks the lottery will sell more tickets than ever in the coming year.

Lottery tickets aren't a must-have item, and the commission members said they wanted to be a little conservative Wednesday when they adopted a $1.27 billion budget for next year. But that budget still counts on the lottery having its best year yet.

After debating the final number, commissioners picked $1.27 billion because that's how much the lottery would have to sell to raise $386 million for education programs. In other words, they started with how much profit they wanted to make and worked backward -- a sort of game of budgetary chance.

The final figure already reflects lowered expectations because of the slumping economy. Tom Shaheen, the lottery executive director, said players didn't buy as many tickets in the past month, possibly because of high gas prices and other financial pressures.

That trend has tempered the best financial times the state lottery has ever seen.

The lottery, which started selling tickets in 2006, had struggled to get sales up to projections. In January, the lottery began offering instant tickets with more prizes, a change allowed by lawmakers to help struggling sales. It worked. In just five months, sales increased by 27 percent, Shaheen said.

The new budget, a 32 percent increase over the current year's budget, banks on that trend continuing.

"I still think we're going to see increases," Shaheen said.

Commission member Max Cogburn favored more conservative estimates, saying high gas and food prices will limit what people will spend on items such as lottery tickets.

"At some point, people are going to go with bread and milk instead of lottery tickets," Cogburn said.

Commission Chairman John McArthur said it's not easy to forecast lottery revenues, which depend on jackpots, word of mouth, stories of local winners and a host of other factors.

"This process is more of an art than a science," McArthur said.