Block · one region of the page, as the scanner read it. It may hold a whole story, part of one, several, or an advertisement; stitching blocks into articles is the next step. Text is supplied OCR.
Page 3 · column 4 of 6 · from the scan, no model involved
By MARY K. BLEWITT
Arundel Newspaper State Writer
Lottery sales have nearly doubled expectations as the Virginia Lottery approaches its first anniversary. In operation for 12 months on Sept. 20, the new state lottery reached $485 million in sales as of Sept. 6.
“We never thought it would come this far in the first year,” said Ken Thorson, lottery director. “At this time last year, we were hoping to make our projection, $250 million in sales. As it turned out, it has been a whole lot better than that.”
Virginians showed their enthusiasm for the state game during the first week of ticket sales last September when they bought an estimated 36.2 million tickets. However, many speculated that the novelty would wear off, and ticket sales would fade. Statistics from the state lottery department show that that is not the case.
Steady tickets sales have continued through the instant games of Money Match, Tie-Tac-Toe, Loose Change, Double Play, Photo Finish, and Lucky Draw. Sales for the new Pick 3 on-line game, which started up on. August 17, were just as impressive, yielding $40.5 million by September 6.
Focusing in on the individual counties, the sales figures seem even more remarkable. In rural Clarke County, total ticket sales for just under a year, Sept. 20, 1988 to Sept. 6, reached 600,365, or $60 per capita. Total sales for Fairfax County were over 27 million, amounting to about $36 per person. Fauquier County’s sales of 3.5 million, or $79 per capita, were somew'hat higher per person than its neighbor’s in Loudoun County whose sales reached 4.4 million, or $63 per capita.
85.1%