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Las Cruces Sun-News, N.M., Brook Stockberger column: BABBLING BROOK: Lottery works to survive economy, pay for scholarships
Mar 08, 2010 (Las Cruces Sun-News - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
As many of you already know, when you grab a dime -- or just use your fingernail -- to scratch off that brightly-colored lottery ticket, you're actually helping New Mexicans get an education.
Whether you pick numbers for a drawing game or you like the instant scratch-off tickets, part of the sale of every lottery ticket in New Mexico goes toward college scholarships at the public colleges, junior colleges or universities here in the Land of Enchantment.
-- points out, the scholarships pay 100 percent of tuition for eight consecutive semesters of eligibility beginning with the second semester of college enrollment.
"It's had a huge impact on freshman enrollment," said Adriana Binns, director of marketing and communications with New Mexico Lottery.
The lottery, which is 100 percent self sufficient, CEO Tom Romero told me, has helped raise enough money so that more than 61,000 students have gone on to higher education thanks to the help of Legislative Lottery Scholarships.
Still, with the state of the economy the past couple of years, the lottery has felt a pinch.
Romero said that it started even before the recession, when gas prices shot up.
"We did see sales start to go down," he said.
The lottery had to cut staff to save money.
"It's been a few rough years," Binns said.
Draw games, where you pick your numbers, have maintained a strong sales
base, but the instant ticket games, what the lottery calls "scratchers," have dropped, Binns said.
The situation highlights how lottery officials try to keep interest in games high, even during good economic times, but especially when times are tight.
A variety of different games are offered each year with thought put into color schemes and wording. One of the latest is the Karate Chop Cash, with a top prize of $2,000. During the holidays, there were scratcher games that included a scratch-and-sniff element and, in a couple of weeks, New Mexico Lottery will offer a game with an Aerosmith theme that will offers among the winnings, a chance to party with the band members.
As part of a new deal negotiated with its vendor, Intralot, Binns said the cost per drawing ticket has been dropped from about 8 cents a ticket to 1.5 cents.
"He's a fierce negotiator," Binns said about Romero with a laugh.
Linda Hamlin, communications manager with the lottery, said that the change was not easy.
"That was a four year process," she said. "It involved more than 6,000 pieces of equipment, 1,100 stores and (Romero) had to build a new communication network to hook all these stores together, and (he) had to transfer every single wager in the lottery's gaming system from the old system to the new system."
There is some new equipment the lottery will unveil soon as well.
Information about the lottery scholarships can be found by calling the New Mexico Higher Education Department at 1-800-279-9777. The lottery also reports that you can ask a high school guidance counselor or college financial aid office as well.
Brook Stockberger can be reached at bstockberger@lcsun-news.com; (575) 541-5457
To see more of the Las Cruces Sun-News, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to
http://www.lcsun-news.com. Copyright (c) 2010, Las Cruces Sun-News, N.M.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email
tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax
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