RENEWING OKLAHOMA
Senator Owen Laughlin

Lottery: Good or Bad?
February 24, 2003

A California study revealed that forty percent of lottery players are unemployed. In Maryland, the poorest 1/3 of the population buys 60% of the daily numbers tickets. In Georgia, those who make less than $25,000 a year spend three times as much on lottery tickets as those who make $75,000 or more per year. In New Mexico, in 1996, three of its poorest counties ranked among the top 10 best selling counties in lottery ticket sales.

Economics professor and lottery expert, Dr. Robert Goodman, says that after 3 to 5 years many people stop playing the lottery because they can no longer afford it. Dr. Goodman’s statement reflects our experience in Oklahoma with pari-mutuel race track betting. Even though Remington Park and Blue Ribbon Downs started off making millions of dollars, last year Blue Ribbon Downs was in bankruptcy and Remington Park lost millions of dollars. Experts believe the lottery will be the death knell for the multi billion dollar horse raising industry in Oklahoma.

Those who think the lottery would be great for Oklahoma should listen to the Georgia Department of Human Resources. They reported that in Georgia 221 million tax dollars are spent annually on social costs directly related to the lottery. Lottery promoters in Oklahoma say that a lottery here will yield $300 million. The history in other states doesn’t support those numbers. Last year Kansas, a state much like Oklahoma, made less than $60 million on its lottery. The experience of other states teaches us that $60 million is less than enough to cover the direct social costs to the state.

Oklahoma is different than most states because of the treaties that the United States Government had with the Indian tribes prior to statehood. Federal law defines “Class 3 Gaming” as including the lottery and all other Las Vegas style casino gambling. Federal law has long held that if Oklahoma legalizes the lottery, the Indian tribes can conduct all other Class 3 gambling within Oklahoma. This would include all Las Vegas style casino gambling, and it can be done at any location in the State of Oklahoma. That means that full Las Vegas style casino gambling would be legal next to churches or schools or any other place a tribe could purchase a piece of land.

Even if one is unconcerned that the lottery preys upon the poorest members of society, surely it would be of some concern to have full Las Vegas style gambling in all of our communities in Oklahoma. This will in fact happen if the lottery passes.

In Northwest Oklahoma and the Panhandle many communities are struggling to survive. The lottery encourages people to gamble money that would otherwise be spent at existing businesses. In California one entire chain of grocery stores quit selling lottery tickets after discovering the stores were losing $1.00 in food sales for every one $1.00 in lottery tickets sold. If the lottery passes there will be a giant sucking sound from virtually all local small businesses in Oklahoma.

The lottery is supposed to benefit education. The fact is that there is plenty of money to fund education. We actually have more money than we had in 1999. The problem is that most state legislators do not want to clean the waste out of government. We need to set priorities of education, public health and safety, and roads. There is more than enough money to fund all those areas adequately, without raising taxes. I still believe that Ronald Reagan was right when he said that a government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take everything you have.

There is a clamor for Oklahoma to join states that sell lottery tickets as a painless substitute for taxes and way to raise money for education. But in 1996, an investigation by “Money” magazine revealed that lottery states collect more in taxes and spend less on schools than states without lotteries. Let’s get our financial house in order. There is plenty of money for education and other priorities. Let’s not open the door for the tribes to bring full Las Vegas style casino gambling to Oklahoma.