Lotovention 2007: The Government and Media Take Notice of Our Exploding Hobby - Part 1

By Arthur Rein, #635

Dateline: Bensalem, Pennsylvania, Friday July 20, 2007.

I arrived at the Courtyard by Marriott hotel shortly after 5pm which was later than I had planned as my ticket run to the Lotovention took longer than I expected.

I was surprised to see the meeting room had already been set up with many club members displaying their tickets and trading.

For many of the past Lotoventions I had to help set up the room with other club members and in some instances we weren't even allowed to use the room until Saturday morning so it was great to see that the fun had actually started without me.

First A Little Lotovention Background

The early setup was a result of the two local Pennsylvanians Bill Pasquino, #14, and Stephen Gilbert, #535, who took control of the planning of the 2007 Lotovention right from the start almost a year earlier. Together they searched out several hotels in the Philadelphia area before settling on the Courtyard by Marriott hotel because of its proximity to the local airport, major highways, and the cost and size of the meeting room.

Bill Pasquino is one of the original members of the club and the first Lotovention, or "gathering of lottery ticket collectors" as it was first called back in 1988, was actually held in his living room. By the time the second gathering occurred one year later, a hotel had to be rented because of the expected high turnout at that time.

Stephen Gilbert is also a club member of a matchbook collectors club and was instrumental in putting together a convention for that club in the Philadelphia area a few years ago which attracted hundreds of club members.

Together, both men had the knowledge and dedication to put on a successful convention and it certainly showed.

Even before the Lotovention began, Bill and Stephen, with the help of Stephen's daughter, who works in Public Relations and Marketing, sent out notices to about 75 different media outlets announcing that our club's Lotovention was going to be held in the Philadelphia area.

As a result of their effort several Philadelphia and southern New Jersey newspapers printed notices in their pages of the impending Lotovention as something to do during the weekend of July 20 to 22.

The Lotovention was listed in the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Gloucester County Times of southern New Jersey, and the weekend section of The Northeast Times to name a few.

In fact, The Northeast Times printed an entire article about Stephen Gilbert, his collection, and the club in their weekly issue of Thursday, July 19 as a lead in for the Lotovention. I have obtained the rights to reprint that article in its entirety elsewhere in this newsletter so look for it.

Bill and Stephen also contacted the offices of elected offices to announce the upcoming Lotovention. In turn, Pennsylvania Governor, Edward G Rendell, Bensalem Mayor, Joseph DiGirolamo, and local State Representative, Thomas P. Murt, all responded with letters of congratulations and welcome.

Each of their letters was included in the official Lotovention program that was given out to attending members.

Friday Trading Session Starts Early

As I mentioned earlier, the meeting room was set up earlier in the day so trading began before I even got to the hotel. There were 15 long tables set up around the perimeter of the room with six large round tables set up in the middle of the room stretching from one end to the other. There was barely enough room to walk in the room.

By the time I had gotten to the hotel most of the long tables had been taken up with the memorabilia from lotologists that had already arrived while the unused tables held signs that read, "Reserved for..." and included the names of lotologists who hadn't arrived yet.

The six round tables in the middle of the room were used as freebie tables in which club members donated tickets for everyone else to take.

I met up with some old friends that I had met at previous Lotoventions:

There was club president, Bob Heskett, #145, John Flara, #565, Ron Moermond, #384, Walter Johnson, #8, Pat Fowler, #118, Eugene Novack, #328, not to mention the fabulous duo of Bill Pasquino and Stephen Gilbert.

I especially enjoyed meeting some new folks for the first time also:

There was Philip Dispenza, #907, who joined the club last October and would only be available for the evening. He told me that he couldn't wait for the Lotovention once he learned it was going to be a short drive from his New Jersey home and then expressed disappointment that someone in his family decided to get married the same weekend. There was Robert Abbott, #847, who told me he enjoyed reading my columns and referred to my wife, Cyrella, as "the famous Cyrella". And there was Dave Kielbasinski, #798, a frequent visitor to one of the club's more popular message boards.

After Cyrella and I checked into the hotel, I went out to the car to bring in the twenty goodie boxes that I had brought with me to give out but I decided to give them out on Saturday when there would be even more people present.

Instead I went from freebie table to freebie table looking for the tickets that I needed. However, since my catalog and wantlist hadn't been updated in almost four months I had no idea of what I needed. Therefore I just kept taking tickets off the freebie tables that I thought I needed and piled them onto my table. It soon became apparent that I would be taking home a ton of tickets.

It wasn't long before the group decided to break for dinner. Several wanted to go to the Applebee's restaurant that was within walking distance of the hotel. However, Cyrella and I preferred the food at the all you can eat buffet called, Old Country Buffet. Many others also preferred this as we convoyed over to that restaurant in three cars.