Joplin Globe

In our view: Oklahoma lottery start getting near

9/7/05

Oklahomans are counting down the days when the state lottery begins offering scratch-off prizes, probably by October, and jackpot games early next year. Or are they? According to a SoonerPoll, fewer than half of those responding to the survey plan to play the lottery. That’s right, only 42 percent said they intend to play the instant-winner games. Of course, that figure may not reflect their interest in the bigger payoffs later.

Let’s face it, scratch-off cards and a numbers lottery have widely different appeal.

Gov. Brad Henry has projected a tidy sum being taken in for education once everything is up and running for the Oklahoma lottery. Lottery officials estimate the games will rake in about $65 million in its first year and that number will grow to $150 million or so.

By comparison, Kansas revenues from its lottery topped $65 million last year. Missouri’s lottery sales were more than $700 million.

Our guess is that more and more Oklahomans will begin playing weekly once the jackpot games begin next year. It will be interesting to see the response to a lottery question in a 2009 poll or once the prizes grow and a following builds.

Despite all of the hullabaloo that surrounds lotteries, including promises and projects, the game is not a fiscal panacea. But it can raise money. Even if Oklahoma’s lottery were to stumble to a meager $70 million in revenue annually, or about half of the official projection, it still would represent money that the state wouldn’t have otherwise to spend on elementary and secondary education.

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