EDITORIAL GET RICH QUICK? MEGA MILLIONS A LOSING TICKET.

IT turns out that get-rich-quick schemes do about as much good for governments as they do for individuals, which is to say, not much.

So when state officials thought that joining the multistate Mega Millions lottery would be California's quick road to riches, they were wrong. Kind of like the ordinary lottery player, who also hopes in vain to strike it rich.

State lottery officials had anticipated that Mega Millions, along with the existing Super Lotto game, would bring in $1.4 billion in its first year. But the result was a more modest $1.2 billion, with the new game cannibalizing revenues from the old one.

Still, overall sales inched up slightly, from $1.1 billion the year before, so at least the move wasn't a loser. But Mega Millions certainly didn't live up to the hype or the expectations. As any regular lottery play can tell you, the games rarely do.