Oklahoma University students and Norman residents continued to raid local convenience stores for lottery tickets Thursday; some even came home with extra cash.

Aaron Rooney, zoology-biomedical sciences senior, said he won $50 after purchasing a lottery ticket.

"It was such a good feeling when the machine told me I had won," Rooney said. "I plan on only buying one ticket per week, but we will see how that goes."

Campus Market, 1313 Jenkins Ave., had lines throughout the store as people waited to purchase their tickets.

"We have been extremely busy due to ticket sales," said Neca Jarnagin, sales clerk. "The manager called me in since it has been so chaotic because the majority of our sales have been toward the lottery."

Store lines across Oklahoma became long and counter space filled up as residents bought their first Oklahoma lottery tickets Wednesday. Oklahoma became the 41st state to have a lottery. Lottery sales are intended to provide millions of dollars to the state's public education system.

Lottery sales have already exceeded $2.2 million according to Jim Scroggins, the lottery's executive director.

The state is using $1, $2 and $5 scratch-off tickets that are becoming popular among residents. The Lucky 7s game has a top prize of $777 if buyers can get three sevens in a line. The ticket costs $1 and there were already three winners who took home the top prize Wednesday.

Another ticket up for grabs is the Rush to Cash ticket that has a winning cash prize of $5,000.

Josh Barron, sales clerk at Campus Market and astrophysics sophomore, said he noticed a lot of people were purchasing the Gusher ticket and Lucky 7.

"I have already seen two girls win $100 and it's just the first day of sales." "I definitely think the lottery is a good idea because teachers need money in their pockets, and it brings more business to the store," Barron said.

Students around campus had to wait in the long lines even though they were not purchasing lottery tickets.

"I went to buy gas Wednesday, and the line was so long, I had to wait 20 minutes to pay," said Jordanna Sutton, University College freshman. "Everyone was using the counters to scratch off their tickets, and I didn't even have room to sign my receipt."

At certain times, some stores did not have a rush of people looking for tickets.

"When I went to go get a Coke, I noticed that lines were not as busy as some people expected," Eric Hanson, philosophy junior, said.

Most residents were happy that the lottery came to Oklahoma, others raised questions on whether or not the lottery was really going to help public education.

"I think the lottery is a bad thing to have in Oklahoma," Hanson said. "Not only do people not need to spend their money on tickets that have such a low chance in winning, but people also need to see that the state already has gambling casinos that are supposedly raising money for education."

Hanson said he thinks it's not the state's fault, but the fault of the voting public that is not making an effort to help fund public education.

Other students think it's a great idea that Oklahoma has a lottery.

"I am really excited because now I do not have to drive to Texas to purchase a ticket," Sutton said. "I used to buy tickets for fun when the jackpot was big just to see if I could win."

Andrew Smith, mechanical engineering senior, said he bought two of each ticket just to see what his chances were.

"I waited for the lottery to come to Oklahoma because I think it's stupid when people drive to other states to purchase tickets," Smith said. "It's giving those states more money for education and not to Oklahoma."

According to the lottery Web site, the state is planning for its online sales to start in November and the state is scheduled to join the national Powerball game in January.