{"id":3316,"date":"2011-11-16T17:50:33","date_gmt":"2011-11-16T22:50:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/?p=3316"},"modified":"2011-11-29T09:55:43","modified_gmt":"2011-11-29T14:55:43","slug":"losing-the-lotto-how-a-massachusetts-gas-station-is-eating-into-nhs-education-funding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/2011\/11\/16\/losing-the-lotto-how-a-massachusetts-gas-station-is-eating-into-nhs-education-funding\/","title":{"rendered":"Losing The Lotto: How A Massachusetts Gas Station Is Eating Into NH’s Education Funding"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Amanda Loder \/ StateImpact New Hampshire<\/p>

Business is booming at Ted's Stateline Mobil in Methuen, Massachusetts<\/p><\/div>\n

Recently, we’ve been checking-in on the health of the New Hampshire lottery<\/a>.\u00a0 (You can read our previous posts here<\/a>, here<\/a>, and here<\/a>.)\u00a0 And in the world of state-sanctioned gambling, the lotto is a big deal.\u00a0 It funds New Hampshire’s public education system, and revenues have been dipping over the past few years.\u00a0 A number of sources who have talked to StateImpact (we’ll name names in a later post) have noted that part of New Hampshire’s problem is its southern neighbor, Massachusetts.<\/p>\n

First, there’s the obvious issue of population.\u00a0 Massachusetts has a lot more people than New Hampshire, so there’s a deeper pool of lottery players available to bring up revenues–and jackpots. But the crux of the problem, however, appears to be this: The Bay State gives a greater portion of its lotto revenue back\u00a0 in prizes than the Granite State does.\u00a0 In FY 2009, Massachusetts gave back nearly 73 percent of sales as prize money, compared to just over 59 percent return to players from New Hampshire<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In terms of population and payout, then, if you like playing the odds on state lottery games, Massachusetts is the place to be.<\/p>\n

And there’s no place quite like Ted’s Stateline Mobil in Methuen.<\/p>\n

So StateImpact decided to go and have a look for ourselves.<\/p>\n

At first, looking at it straight on, from the front, there’s nothing spectacular about Ted’s.\u00a0 It’s a standard, well-kept Mobil<\/a> gas station.\u00a0 But if you spend a few seconds really looking<\/em> at the place, some things will start to stand out.\u00a0 There’s a large sign out front advertising the Mass Millions game.\u00a0 There are some tall, bright blue Keno banners adorning the lawn.\u00a0 And if look a bit to the left, it gets weirder.<\/p>\n

First, there’s the stone marker set up on the patch of lawn in front of Ted’s, which is situated on a busy corner.\u00a0 Getting up closer, you can make out the worn letters–an “M” for Methuen on one side, and an “S” for Salem on the other.\u00a0 This gas station really is about as close to the New Hampshire\/Massachusetts border as you can get.<\/p>\n

On an adjoining patch of lawn sits a large Bank of America<\/a> ATM kiosk.\u00a0 A casual look at the signage and buildings surrounding Ted’s reveals three larger bank branch outposts: Sovereign Bank<\/a>, People’s United Bank<\/a>, and TD Bank<\/a>.<\/p>\n

So for many customers, quick cash is just a few steps away.<\/p>\n

Then, there’s the parking lot.\u00a0 It’s big, at least for a convenience store.\u00a0 A lot of the time, it’s full–and a cursory count of license plates shows that lot of the customers are from New Hampshire.\u00a0 (We’ll have more on that a bit later.)<\/p>\n

As you make your way to the side entrance, you can see a tarp-covered smokers’ shelter.\u00a0 There’s a knot of people sitting at a picnic table who alternate between hunching over and staring at a pair of monitors hooked-up to the outside of the building.\u00a0 Periodically, someone will pick up a golf pencil and scratch something onto a card.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Amanda Loder\/StateImpact New Hampshire<\/p>

Ted's Stateline Mobil generally entertains a steady stream of customers from 5 am to close at 9 pm<\/p><\/div>\n

And once you open the side door, you’re confronted with what can probably best be described as a\u00a0 small, quasi-casino.\u00a0 A long table with bar stools dominates the room.\u00a0 Along its center are stacks of Keno cards and other numbers games.\u00a0 Ceiling-mounted monitors flash numbers at patrons, and there’s a constant stream of traffic in and out.\u00a0 Electronic ticket-scanners dot various counter tops for the self-serve crowd, and workers at five stations take orders for scratch tickets.<\/p>\n

Watching people thread in and out of the gas station, it’s hard to get a bead on the customer base.\u00a0 Ted’s Mobil owner Tony Amico agreed, “It’s hard to estimate,”\u00a0 he said.\u00a0 But, “We have over a thousand people a day, coming and going.”<\/p>\n

And how much of that is New Hampshire business, we wondered?<\/p>\n

It didn’t take Amico long to answer.\u00a0 “Because we’re on the borderline of New Hampshire and Massachusetts, probably better than 50 percent of our customers are probably from New Hampshire.”<\/p>\n

He was also quick to note, “Statistic-wise, we are the number one agent in the state of Massachusetts…and we are the luckiest agent, according to statistics.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Amanda Loder \/ StateImpact New Hampshire<\/p>

Tony Amico owns Ted's Stateline Mobil, and does a booming business in lotto sales<\/p><\/div>\n

Looking at the back wall, covered with large photos of happy “big money” lottery winners who got their tickets from Ted’s, it’s not hard to believe.\u00a0 Amico ticked-off the most recent round of big wins, “Our last winners were two Mass Cash winners, for $100,000 a piece.\u00a0 But at the end of last year, we had two $1 million winners, one in August, one in April.\u00a0 So we have a lot of million dollar winners.”<\/p>\n

Counting the photos lining the wall, we asked, “Ten or twelve, at least?”<\/p>\n

“I can’t even count ’em!” Amico responded, “On scratch tickets, we’ve had two $4 million winners.\u00a0 We’ve had multiple $1 million winners.\u00a0 We’ve had a couple of Mega Million winners.\u00a0 Those were big, big jackpots.\u00a0 and a couple of people who came in second place in Mega Millions, and that was like $125,000 and $150,000.”<\/p>\n

A lot of winners adds up to a lot of commissions for lottery agents like Ted’s Mobil.<\/p>\n

When we asked about how much the store rakes in for lotto sales and commissions, however, Amico simply responded, “Money-wise?”<\/p>\n

“Yeah.”<\/p>\n

A pause, then a light chuckle, “A lot.”<\/p>\n

“You’re not comfortable saying?”<\/p>\n

“No.”<\/p>\n

Luckily for StateImpact, however, Paul Sternburg, Executive Director of the Massachusetts State Lottery<\/a>, wasn’t so shy about sharing numbers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis year, he\u2019ll probably do somewhere between $12 and $13 million dollars in sales,” Sternburg said.\u00a0 “So you have to assume some of that is cross-over.\u00a0 I mean, I can\u2019t quantify how much, but…our border retailers do very, very well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course, this all begs the question, if Ted’s is the top agent in Massachusetts, and border sales are generally well above average, what does your average Massachusetts lottery agent’s business look like away from the border boom towns?<\/p>\n

\u201cThe average retailer, the average commission rate is around $37,000,” Sternburg said, “You\u2019d say the average retailer does about $750,000 in sales.”<\/p>\n

Crossover traffic, indeed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recently, we’ve been checking-in on the health of the New Hampshire lottery.\u00a0 (You can read our previous posts here, here, and here.)\u00a0 And in the world of state-sanctioned gambling, the lotto is a big deal.\u00a0 It funds New Hampshire’s public education system, and revenues have been dipping over the past few years.\u00a0 A number of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":3325,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[53],"tags":[544,192,85,511,207],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3316"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3316"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3316\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3336,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3316\/revisions\/3336"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}