Claremore Daily Progress

Lottery may help.

8/4/05

Oklahoma legislators and the governor should pay attention to the results of a recent poll to estimate what percentage of Oklahomans will play the lottery.

SoonerPoll.com surveyed 750 registered voters earlier this month and reported only 42 percent of those taking part in the survey said they would play the state’s lottery once it begins, probably in October.

Those connected with the lottery predicted the games will reap about $65 million in revenue its first year and grow to about $150 million annually.

That’s an aggressive figure.

The Kansas Lottery reported its games produced $65.4 million in state revenue in fiscal year 2005, a $4.8 million drop from 2004. Kansas’ population numbers about 1 million less than Oklahoma’s, but officials with the Kansas lottery estimate 60 to 65 percent of Kansans purchase lottery tickets sometime during the year. They also estimate about 30 to 35 percent play consistently.

Missouri Lottery officials ran a survey in June 2005 and reported 70.2 percent of Missouri residents say they purchased a lottery ticket in the past. They add about 28 percent play weekly or monthly and another 13.5 percent play every couple of months on the average.

From those numbers, it seems clear that if more than half of Oklahomans do not purchase lottery tickets, taking in $150 million a year in revenue will be a tough goal to reach.

We should be more realistic about the revenue a lottery will produce and what we plan to do with the money before it materializes. The state Legislature approved a $475 million higher education bond package for college capital improvements this past session. The bonds are supposed to be paid with lottery funds over a period of 30 years, so a big chunk of every year’s lottery revenue will be used for paying back bonds and interest.

The lottery certainly will be a good source of revenue, but the worst thing we can do is see it as a solution to all our money problems.

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