Stan Geiger

Lottery Impact

KOTV's Oklahoma Impact series continued last night with a story on the lottery. It was a nice piece. The News on 6 continues to be my local station of choice---from 5 o'clock through the end of the evening, at least.

The story focused on that omnipresent ad featuring the cute little kids shouting out about what lottery proceeds "could" buy---things like 1,500 school buses and 75,000 computers.

Maybe lottery proceeds to this point could have purchased those things, but they haven't. Schools don't buy such things with lottery proceeds. In fact, schools don't buy such things with operating budget money at all; they float debt to buy such things these days.

The overall impact of lottery money is overstated in the ad. The figure thrown out is $300 million. But, as a fellow interviewed noted, that figure is from inception. The average annual amount going to education is about $67 million. Common education---of which the little kids in the ad are a part---gets 45 percent of that, or about $30 million per year. There are over 500 public school districts in the state, so it averages out to about $60,000 per school district per year. The money is apportioned, so the bigger, more affluent, school districts get the lion's share. Smaller school districts that might actually need the funding get something on the order of spit in a bucket.

One of the key stats mentioned in the report should be well-noted by everyone. The report said 85 percent of lottery money that actually makes it into school districts is absorbed by payroll. The ad speaks of computers, buses, desks, microscopes and books. But, in reality, lottery proceeds go home with the educators.

If you really believe your child's school is in need of more of your money, I have a suggestion for you.

Running the numbers, 35 percent of the lottery's gross goes to "education." The rest goes to administrative costs, prizes and advertising. Of the 35 percent, common schools get 45 percent. So if you drop a dollar on a lottery ticket, common schools get 16 cents.

If you want your kid's school to have the money, instead of buying a dollar lottery ticket just go down there and hand over 16 cents. It's a whole lot cheaper that way.

I would be remiss if I closed out this writing without mentioning the negative macroeconomic impact of having a lottery in the state.

As we all know, the state's economy is not in the best of shape. Unemployment is up. Consumer spending is down. The state government, as a result, is facing a billion dollar shortfall. Without a doubt, we would be in better shape if the lottery didn't exist.

A lottery is a nonproductive entity that sucks money out of the economy. In other words, money that could be going to productive commerce is going into our state-owned gambling operation instead. That feeds unemployment and dampens consumer spending. In turn, those things cause a drop in state revenue.

Installing a lottery was one of the dumbest moves this state has ever made. We should move to do away with it.

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