Lottery sales up, profits down

Tennessee Lottery sales are up but profits are down, meaning less money for scholarships. The hope is that this week's $245 million jackpot, combined with some new ideas, will help to create new revenue.

At King's Market and Cafe in downtown Nashville, excitement is growing for Wednesday's Powerball jackpot.

"I'd probably buy a really nice house, a nice car and probably share with my family," said Scarlett Walker

This is the largest Powerball in about a year and a half.

"When it's a big jackpot, everybody buys. Most people, even if they don't play regular time, but they do buy when too big," said Ish Yele.

But it's not just the store that's looking for a win; so, too, is the lottery.

"Whenever the jackpot is over $200 million, our sales increase pretty dramatically," said Rebecca Paul Hargrove.

New numbers reveal sales were up slightly from the year before. However, the money used to fund scholarships is down by about $6 million, and Powerball could change that.

"The two things that really impact our sales are Powerball jackpots and gas prices," said Hargrove. "If you look at all of the things we did in the Tennessee games last year, we had a great year. We didn't have any Powerball jackpots, and that impacted the bottom line by about$ 6 million. We went from $280 million to $286 million -- that was the difference last year."

So with funding for educational programs down, the lottery is trying to come up with new ideas.

And you've heard of the Tennessee lottery, but what about a global lottery? It's an idea that's being looked at for 2011.

Look for a new Tennessee Titans-based lottery game to be unveiled Sept. 1 that will allow you to win game tickets for the next 20 seasons.

Reported by Marc Stewart, www.wsmv.com