In three years of operations, the Oklahoma Lottery has produced hundreds of millions less than what Gov. Brad Henry projected when he made it a hallmark of his first term in office.

While still a state senator, Henry predicted a lottery would produce $500 million a year for “common education.” While running for governor, Henry trimmed that figure to $250 million.

Instead, the lottery has produced about $80 million a year that is being split with common education (k-12), higher education and other funds labeled as education.

The Oklahoma Lottery has sold $691,290,857 in tickets. It has paid $244,549,505 in taxes in three years. Winners have received $447,121,287 in prize money. State retailers have been paid $46,034,389 in commissions for lottery sales.

Also in those three years, $7,099,615 has been withheld from winners for state taxes. Delinquent taxes withheld from prize money has totaled $17,259 and $1,044,600 has been spent for programs to help problem gamblers.

The budget to run the lottery is about $8,600,000 a year.

Lottery officials ran ads in state newspapers in February lobbying for an increase in the state-mandated cap of 35 percent for lottery profits. They want to lift that cap so they can give out higher prizes to hopefully sell more tickets.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 5th, 2009 and is filed under News Briefs.