newjerseynewsroom.com

BY BOB HOLT

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

New Jersey is considering expanding its highly successful lottery program. Legislation proposed by Assemblywoman Annette Quijano, D-Union, would allow state lottery players to buy tickets online.

According to the Daily Record, the bill would make New Jersey the first state in the nation to offer this service. Lottery sales for the first quarter of 2011 in New Jersey hit $693 million.

Some of the bill’s details, like whether it would mean starting a new game only available online are still being discussed, Quijano, said, according to Lottery Post. The bill would not apply to scratch-off tickets.

But online lottery sales will hurt small businesses, said Kashmir Gill, who operates stores in Monmouth, Middlesex, and Somerset counties. New Jersey has 6,100 businesses that sell lottery tickets.

Lottery agents receive 5 percent commissions. Gill told the Asbury Park Press. The store operators generate the most money when lottery players also buy food, drink, and other conveniences. The proposed bill has been amended to redistribute up to 5 percent of online sales among lottery agents.

The New York Lottery offers a subscription service to its Mega Millions and Lotto games which lets players to sign up and pay for their numbers online. It has about 90,000 subscribers.

In 2010, the New Jersey Lottery paid $924 million to state education, human services and veterans services programs and paid $145 million in commissions to lottery agents.

The Powerball jackpot has reached $200 million for Wednesday night's drawing. New Jersey has seen big jackpot winners before. In 2007, Campark Liquors of Woodbine sold a ticket to someone who split a $390 million Mega Millions jackpot. And later that same year, Blitz's Hole-in-the-Wall Market in Lower Township sold a winning ticket on a $330 million jackpot.

The downside of this proposed bill for New Jersey comes from 1-800-GAMBLER, the 24-hour problem-gambling hotline listed on the backs of tickets. Lottery phone calls to the hotline have increased to 15 percent now, from 9 percent in 2004.