25 years ago: Kansas retailers prepare to launch Kansas Lottery
From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for Nov. 11, 1987:
Retail store owners were getting ready this week for the opening day of the Kansas Lottery. About 50 businesses in Douglas County, including grocery stores, liquor stores, convenience stores, and a barber shop, were planning to sell the $1 “instant-win” tickets. Few retailers were planning any special promotions for the lottery, with the exception of the Jayhawk Book Store, 1420 Crescent Drive, which was having a major promotion beginning at 10 p.m. in hopes of selling the first ticket in the state at exactly one second after midnight. Meanwhile, Kansas University business professor Larry Sherr had been using the lottery as an illustration for his statistics students. “I calculated what we statisticians call ‘expected value of playing the game,'” said Sherr. “That means if you were to play the game a lot, and purchase a lot of tickets, on the average how much you would expect to win or lose.”