“People just love to gamble. I don’t know if it’s a release for them or what, but they just enjoy the entertainment,” said George Wellinger, owner of Crafton Beverage, which draws more Pennsylvania Lottery action than any other independent retailer in the Pittsburgh area.
In selling $33,000 in tickets weekly, his beer distributorship in the Crafton-Ingram Shopping Center takes in as much cash Judi Online24jam Deposit Uang from the lottery as it does from alcohol. An illuminated green sign in the window, right below the displays for Labatt Blue and Miller and above the week’s winning numbers, reads: “Pennsylvania Lottery benefits older Pennsylvanians. Play here.”
And so Charlotte Petrelli does, spending at least $15 almost every day at Crafton Beverage. If the 57-year-old medical bill collector loses, she likes knowing the money provides transportation and medication benefits to people like her mother.
So why not just give the money directly to Mom and some other old folks? “It’s not as much fun that way,” Petrelli said with a smile, holding $25 in Saturday tickets for the Daily Number, the Big 4 and the Powerball.
She also plays bingo weekly and video poker at any of “10 or 15 places I know that pay out.” She also goes to West Virginia to play slots. She goes to Judi Online24jam Deposit Uang racetracks, betting according to the riders’ colors (purple and white, or black and gold). And she goes to Las Vegas about four times a year.
“I grew up in Woods Run learning to shoot craps off the penitentiary wall,” she said.
Playing the ponies
A recent warm and breezy Saturday evening found plenty of parents and children in the crowd of 1,200 people at The Meadows racetrack in Washington County. The track’s owner, Magna Entertainment Group, is among the leading proponents of legalizing slots to help the industry.
Nearly 1,400 people a day, on average, visit The Meadows or its four off-track betting sites around southwestern Pennsylvania, an attendance figure that has been dropping. Horse wagering nationally has been sluggish — it r Judi Online24jam Deposit Uang equires more study and gives less immediate gratification than many other forms of gambling. In addition, local revenues have been siphoned off as well by West Virginia tracks offering slots since the mid-1990s, said Mike Jeannot, the Meadows’ vice president.
