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Mar-05-2006 13:31printcomments

Oregon Lottery Hits One Billion Dollar Milestone

Oregon Lottery logo
Salem-News.com

(Salem AP) - It started with a simple scratch-off game, an almost mom-and-pop approach to the take-a-chance, get-rich-quick, working guy's dollar-shot-at-a-dream world of legalized gambling.

A few people have gotten rich.

But the state has gotten richer and is getting richer still.

In the new quarterly revenue forecast it is predicted that Oregon's lottery revenue for the current budget cycle should hit $1 billion for the first time, some $69 million more than predicted.

Of the $69 million, $25 million is spoken for. Various interests, especially education, are circling around the remainder.

The new figure represents roughly one dollar in every eight the state has to spend.

It makes the $60 million or so the lottery brought in after voters established it in 1984 look like chump change.

Lottery revenue took off after video poker was introduced in 1992 and again when casino-style "line games" were added last year.

Profits fund projects that include education, state parks, salmon recovery programs, economic development, and athletic scholarships at state schools. One percent goes to treat gambling addiction.

Still, not everybody is thrilled.

"I think from my standpoint it has become the financial means of most political resort," said David Leslie, executive director of the Ecumenical Council of Oregon.

"The consequence of that is that we have effectively tabled any discussion in recent years on tax reform or other sources of revenue to fund basic state services."

Leslie said that as lottery revenue increases, "funding for schools, health care and public safety continues to drop."

He called the lottery a regressive tax - those least able to afford to lose pay a disproportionate share - albeit a voluntary one.

"Not everyone in Oregon gambles," Leslie said. "But to succeed a lottery needs a class of people who are problem gamblers and pathological gamblers."

The $1 billion milestone, he said, "is not something in our mind to be proud of."

"The reality in Oregon is that we are addicted," Leslie said. Addicted or not, with $1 billion in play the state "certainly depends" heavily on the income these days, said Lottery spokesman Chuck Bauman.

Most lottery profits, 64 percent, go to education.

The second-largest expenditure goes to lottery retailers, 24.8 percent of net revenue, which means the money put into the machines minus the prizes paid out.

More goes to maintenance, construction and land acquisition for state parks.

Bauman said 20 percent goes to economic development, which can cover broad ground including business expansion projects and underwriting employee training to lure businesses to the state.

There have been moves to lower the retailers' percentage and send the rest to education, which has raised a fury among owners of the 2,077 establishments where the state's 10,848 terminals are placed.

The video poker and line games bring in about 80 percent of the Lottery's revenue. The new casino-style line games, Bauman said, are proving especially popular at least partly because of their simplicity.

"You don't have to know what a full house is or anything like that," he said.

The Lottery will add a game in April called Lucky Lines, based on a tic-tac-toe grid. Bauman said Oregon's collection of lottery games is among the nation's largest, partly to appeal to a broad range of players.

"Ideally we would love to have a lot of people play just a little," he said.




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