Lottery retailers get training (UALR Public Radio) - The bleachers in the gym of National Park Community College are half-full. Dozens of convenience store proprieters, grocery store managers, and tobacco store workers are assembled to get their tutorial on the lottery machines. Trainer Dionne Huffman starts off with an energetic presentation.

"... the last time you take a bet for Powerball is one hour prior to draw time..."

The trainers have the enthusiasm and polish of motivational speakers. Drew Scolaro is in charge of the training statewide. He works for Intralot, the Greece-based company that is supplying the lottery's major systems.

Scolaro: "We're actually doing this training in fifteen cities around the state. Every night, we pack up, travel to a new city. So we're staying pretty busy."

Scolaro says store managers should be able to learn most of the system in the two hours that they're here.

Scolaro: "With the retailer base we're working with, the turnover sometimes is pretty quick, so we train the managers and the people that've been pretty steady, and they go back and train their clerks and shift workers."

The training is hands-on, too. In the back of the gym, under the basketball hoops, a row of dummy lottery terminals is set up. They have small touch-screens and scrolling displays to show what the latest jackpot is. Tiffany Stoval is playing around with a machine, issuing fake tickets and redeeming them. She works at Discount Tobacco in Malvern.

Stoval: "It should be pretty simple, it seems pretty self-explanatory."

In the beginning, only scratch-off tickets will be sold. Then, on Halloween, Arkansans can buy Powerball tickets as well. The retailers are learning about both here.

"So we paid ten dollars and won one dollar. So you're in the hole nine dollars. That's my luck."

Valerie Macensie owns Mac's Minnows and More, a bait and tackle shop in Benton. She says she's going to need some extra practice.

"People in Central Arkansas are really excited about it. Because, like, a lot of my customers drive to Texarkana, and they buy their stuff down there. So it's time for our kids to benefit a little bit. [Have they been talking to you about it?] Oh yeah - I've got a customer that drives down once a month. He buys two to five dollar tickets, and spends fifty dollars. And he buys one that's for, I don't know, 3-4 weeks. Anyway, he was bringing them in to show me. He's trying to teach me how to do this [laughs].

The trainers have reassuring answers for all of the retailers' questions - what if there's a power outage? How do you keep records from shift to shift? What if a ticket gets crumpled and won't scan? Do we have to pay for our own paper? How much cash will a store have to keep in the register for prizes? The answer to that one, by the way, is just nineteen dollars. If a customer wins any more than that, he or she may get a voucher instead and have to schedule a time to collect their prize at the store. If they win more than five hundred dollars, they have to go to a lottery claims center. Valerie Macensie says she's hoping the lottery ticket sales will give her store a boost.

Macensie: "It's been a tough year for little stores like ours this year. So anything we can do to bring extra traffic in, that helps. If they buy a candy bar while they get their lottery ticket, that helps us."

The stores get a five percent commission on all tickets sold, plus a smaller commission on prizes paid out. Intralot is holding training sessions in Little Rock right up until Friday. They're even training some retailers whose applications for a license haven't finished being processed yet. © Copyright 2009, UALR Public Radio