Maryland Business

By: jackie.sauter

Correct me if I’m wrong, but gamblers tend to be a superstitious lot. They make a move based on good premonitions, they’ve got lucky numbers, a special way to roll the dice — some even have a favorite position at the poker table.

Watching the regular customers downtown Baltimore’s Newsmart buy their daily lottery tickets while reporting on today’s story about the financial state of the Maryland Lottery, lotto players aren’t much different. They’ve got their lucky numbers and regular games they play, and rarely do they rock the boat.

Based on that set-up, would you introduce a new scratch-off game on what is supposedly the unluckiest day of the year?

Well, the Maryland Lottery, thumbing its proverbial nose in the face of superstition, is doing exactly that. Today, Friday the 13th, the agency will debut its newest scratch-off, “The Maryland Zoo’s Tic Tac Wild,” at the zoo’s Zoomerang! fundraising gala tonight. With a top prize of $10,000, the $2 scratch-off will help raise awareness about the zoo, according to a press release sent this week.

Carole Everett, spokeswoman for the Maryland Lottery said in an e-mail yesterday that they “hope Friday the 13th is a lucky day for our lottery players.”

If you play the lottery — or even if you don’t — do you think this timing will make this ticket unpopular, at least for today?

LIZ FARMER, Business Writer