As California jackpot fever heats up, sellers hope problem-plagued new machines keep working
With today's California SuperLotto Plus lottery jackpot at $96 million, convenience store manager Gurjit Singh was hoping for a little luck.
And not just because he wants to win.
Singh also was concerned about the condition of his new satellite-fed lottery ticket machine, which has failed to dispense tickets a few times since it was installed last month.
Staring at the biggest jackpot of the year, even a short pause could be a major problem for his Lotto-crazed customers.
"It goes down for a couple of hours and then it works, then it goes back down," said Singh, who manages the Quik Stop Market on Ninth Street in Santa Rosa. "Right now, it's working. But you never know."
Tonight at about 8 p.m. state lottery officials will draw six numbers for the massive Super Lotto Plus jackpot, the sixth largest in the 18-year state lottery history.
A lone winner could get a check every year for the next 26 years, ranging in size from $2.4 million to $4.8 million before taxes. Or the winner could opt instead for a lump sum payment of about $48 million.
Millions are expected to try to buy tickets during the usual surge that happens when jackpots top $50 million.
"If I win I'm going to buy a house and pay off my car," Santa Rosa receptionist Zalena Johnson-Bell said as she bought a $1 ticket from Singh. "I'll buy my mom a house, too."
But because of a glitch in the state's new satellite system, some retailers might not be able to fulfill customers' wishes.
The problem mostly affects self-service lottery machines in grocery stores and some clerk-activated machines in convenience stores, lottery spokeswoman Cathy Doyle Johnston said.
It surfaced this month when the state flipped the switch after a year-long project to install new equipment for satellite reception in 18,000 stores, she said.
"Unfortunately, when that happened we discovered there were bugs to work out," John-ston said. "Of course, having the jackpot this high ... just compounds the problem."
Johnston didn't say how many machines aren't working, but she said the outage isn't widespread.
The few stores still operating on the old telephone line system aren't affected, she said.
"We are working around the clock to fix the problems," Johnston said.
Among the stores awaiting repairs in Sonoma County were several grocery stores and a handful of convenience stores.
On Tuesday, some of the stores taped signs to the machines giving customers the bad news.
Nicole Townsend, a Raley's spokeswoman, said although self-serve machines were down customers could buy lottery tickets in the stores' camera departments.
She said 95 percent of the chain's California stores had trouble.
"It's an inconvenience for our customers," Townsend said. "We're doing all we can to continue to serve them."
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