Taking a chance

Colla’s Market is the top lottery ticket-seller in the Valley.

By COURTNEY DENEN

SPECIAL TO THE VINDICATOR

Photo

Ohio Lottery hot spots

John Colla knows that one of the main reasons customers walk into his Colla’s Market in Austintown is for a chance to turn $1, $5 or $10 from their wallets into thousands or even millions.

Colla’s has been a family-run business for 50 years. “Most people I’ve known for 30, 40 years,” he said. “Customers feel pretty secure playing the game with people they know.”

The economy’s down and unemployment’s up. But neither seems to deter the number of Ohioans playing the lottery and hoping for their chance at a fortune. Actually, Colla said, a bad economy drives up lottery play.

Nowhere in the Valley have people sought lottery riches more than at his store. Colla’s Market sold $1.6 million in lottery tickets — more than any other store in Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties — between July 2008 and June 2009, according to reports from the Ohio Lottery Commission.

In 2008, players in the tri-county area shelled out more than $150 million for the chance to become rich.

Despite the sagging current economic climate, Ohio officials say the state is headed for a record sales year for 2009. Lottery officials predict that people will spend $2.42 billion this year on tickets, making Ohio one of the top five states in the nation in lottery sales. Sales for the fiscal year 2008 were $2.32 billion.

“We’ve seen that lottery sales have remained steady and in our case even risen despite the bad economy. That is directly related to introducing a new game – Keno,” Jeannie Roberts, a representative for the Ohio Lottery, said in an email.

The Ohio Lottery credits Keno’s introduction, for its “good year last year”. Roberts also said that keeping a fresh mix of instant tickets on the shelves helps sales as well.

With these increased lottery sales come increased lottery winnings. The Lottery Commission payouts in 2008 represented 60.1 percent of the total ticket sales — up from 59.2 percent in 2007.

High lottery payouts are another possible explanation for why Colla’s Market sells so many tickets. Over the last 40 years, Colla’s has seen plenty of big winners.

“We’ve had an $8 million winner, a lady won $6 million and another lady won $1 million,” Colla said. “Just last March, we had a $2 million winner on a $10 scratch ticket.”

The Valley’s next sales leader after Colla’s is Drive Thru News and Lottery on South Raccoon Road in Austintown, with almost $1.2 million in lottery sales last year. Liberty Mini Mart on Belmont Avenue in Youngstown topped $1.1 million.

Mini Mart owner Jamil Niser is proud of this accomplishment. “People want to win some money,” he said. “We treat customers good, and they are happy.”

Niser believes that his store’s increased lottery sales are due to new players.

“I’ve been here the last 10, 11 years and we started seeing a lot of new faces,” he said, explaining that people who may have never played the lottery in the past are coming forward and trying their luck for the first time.

A seasoned lottery player, Charlie Bratton of Liberty has played the lottery every day for the past three years. The self-employed 44-year-old said he plays the Pick 3 and Pick 4 games at the One-Stop Mart in Liberty. He’s hoping for the same luck that the customers from Colla’s Market and Liberty Mini Mart have had.

“I play so I can catch a break — so I won’t have to work no more,” he said.

Dawn Harnutovsky of Austintown prefers to play scratch-off tickets. The 33-year-old administrative assistant said she regularly tries her luck with the lottery at the Sparkle grocery store in Cornersburg. “I used to play every day. Now I play three or four times a month,” she said.

The economy only played a small factor in her reasons for not continuing to play every day. Harnutovsky said she is superstitious and only buys a lottery ticket when it feels right.

“I usually only play when I’m feeling lucky,” she said. “I know it sounds cheesy, but generally when I play on those days, I win.”

Although Harnutovsky hasn’t won as much money as she would like, she said she has had her share of good luck.

“The most I’ve ever won was $200 at once. One week, I won close to $1,000 on several tickets,” she said.

Colla said that it’s the first win that gets players hooked.

“If you win, even a few bucks, you get a little bit of an itch and you want to play again and again,” he said.

The more money spent on lottery tickets the more money that goes to the Lottery Profits Education Fund. The LPEF receives 100 percent of lottery profits.

“Last fiscal year, we transferred $702 million” to educational programs, said Roberts.