How will games like Mega Millions be affected by the Ohio Lottery switch to Intralot?
in an office park in Strongsville, state officials and a gaggle of computer technicians, some from Greece, will change how Ohioans get their lottery tickets. Success will be measured by how few people notice. What happens inside the 80,000-square-foot, unadorned brick building not far from the Lorain County line is being watched like Y2K, at least in the world of state lotteries. “A lot of people are rooting for us, and some are not,” Ohio Lottery Director Mike Dolan said. The moment marks the first time since 1985 that Ohio will swap the computers, software, countertop ticket dispensers and the company that actually runs the state’s $2.4 billion lottery, the ninth-largest in the country. The changeover — which must be completed before convenience store owners raise their steel shutters Wednesday morning — is the largest and most complicated overnight conversion in the country, officials say. If things don’t go as planned, the lottery could lose money. The new system will be hit by m
Lottery players will be able to buy tickets for drawings, such as Pick 3 and Mega Millions, faster than they do now and eventually at automated kiosks the size of soda vending machines. Store owners who sell tickets will have a lot less paperwork because computers will handle their ticket sales and accounting. And the state saves about $20 million a year compared with the current contract.
