Ohio Lottery officials hit the jackpot when they came up with a second daily drawing for the Pick 3 and Pick 4 numbers to boost sagging sales.

Now their bid to draw in more .players is drawing fire from critics who say the lottery is unfairly taking advantage of the poor, a charge Ohio Lottery Director Mitchell Brown denies.

The charge is rooted in anecdotes, but The Plain,Dealer’s analysis of ZIP codes backs up some of the suspicions. The new midday Pick 3 and Pick 4 drawings are very popular in poor, black neighborhoods in Cleveland and in the southern and eastern suburbs, reaping up to $11 million in sales.

It’s hard not to be concerned when poor people are throwing away their hard-earned money to buy lottery tickets. One could make an argument for ending one of the drawings to save people from themselves.

But would they be saved? For one thing, long before the state lottery, the illegal numbers game flourished in black communities. It still has its followers, although the police have been trying to stamp it out for decades.

Maybe that bit of history helps to explain why the Pick 3 and 4 games have been so popular with poor, black ticket-buyers.

Or maybe, as State Sen. C.J. Prentiss says, the reason is that those who have little hope that they can find better jobs and get bigger paychecks fall for the lottery’s get-rich-quick siren call.

The Lottery is legal, of course, but that doesn’t make it any less a racket. The state shouldn’t encourage hard-working citizens to throw their money away, to benefit the public schools or any other worthy cause. But it does, and it is always on the lookout for new ways to entice Ohioans to part volun- tarily with their money.

Whatever the gimmick, it’s a sucker’s bet.