Jackpot!

Every week Americans eagerly scratch coins or other objects across the surfaces of some 40 million "instant-win" lottery tickets to find out if they have hit the jackpot. But whether they jump for joy or toss away another losing ticket in disgust, the national love of lotteries has made big winners of two Atlanta-based companies, Scientific Games and Dittler Bros. They are the undisputed champions of instant-win games, one of the most popular forms of legalized gambling.

The two firms, which in 1984 produced 1.5 billion tickets for games in eleven states, control 70% of the instant-win lottery business in the U.S. Scientific Games' lottery revenues rocketed from $100,000 in 1973 to $30 million in 1983. Dittler Bros., a wholly owned subsidiary of Southam, a Canadian newspaper group, does not publicly report sales or earnings.

The Atlanta companies joined forces in 1974 after Scientific Games developed the idea for instant-win lotteries. The concept was based on promotional contests that Scientific, then barely a year old, had been selling to businesses. Scientific now acts as the sales agent for the games, performing all marketing, design and administrative work, while Dittler is the printer.

Dittler was founded in 1902 by Brothers Emil and Alex Dittler as a printer of railroad schedules. But by the 1970s it had expanded its product range to include business cards, hotel directories and contest tickets. Says Dittler Chairman Gilbert Bachman: "We had already produced literally billions of promotional game tickets for other companies, so it was just a matter of taking our know-how and applying it to the instant lottery ticket concept."

Until the advent of instant lotteries, state-sponsored games were conducted by drawing. While such contests still have 70% of the market, scratch-ticket lotteries are growing in popularity because of the instant gratification--or dejection. Today, for a bet of $1, a lucky player can collect up to $100,000.

About 80% of all instant-win lottery tickets are sold in five states: Colorado, Illinois, Michigan, New York and Pennsylvania. Dittler and Scientific Games expect their business to grow substantially as more states offer contests. Last week Oregon signed a contract calling for the delivery of at least 100 million instant-win tickets in 1985. California is expected to approve a lottery later this year.

The games are also popular abroad. Dittler Bros. printed a total of 50 million tickets in 1984 for Argentina, Australia, Canada and Israel. Says Robert Mote, a vice president of Scientific Games: "People everywhere like to know if they are winners--immediately."