Most Kentucky Lottery players don't know where the money goes

Oct 29, 2010, 9:52 am (8 comments)

Kentucky Lottery

Kentucky is only state with odd law that prohibits advertising where funds go

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Since its inception, the Kentucky Lottery has taken in $12.5 billion. A recent study said most people in the commonwealth have no idea where that money goes.

A local TV station has been investigating how much of that Powerball cash actually goes to Kentucky.

Kentucky Lottery officials believe they could be taking in more money if Kentuckians were better informed about lottery proceeds, but state law is preventing the information from getting out.

"About a half billion, $500,000, comes from Scratch Offs," said Kentucky Lottery Corp. President Arch Gleason. "Daily games, Pick 3, Pick 4, about $150 million of our annual sales. Powerball, Mega Millions was about $115-$116 million."

A survey conducted on behalf of the Kentucky Lottery found about three quarters of those questioned did not know how lottery proceeds are spent.

"There was talk early, 20 years ago, that it would all go to education," University of Louisville President James Ramsey said.

"I am going to work hard to see lottery proceeds are spent on early childhood development programs," Gov. Wallace Wilkinson said in July 1989.

The confusion started at the beginning of the lottery when Kentuckians were told education would be the big beneficiary.

For the first four years, beginning in 1989, no money was designated for education. All of the money from the lottery went into the general fund.

In 1993 and 1994, proceeds went to the Secondary Education Excellence in Kentucky program. After that, there was another four year dry spell for education.

In 1999, Senate Bill 1, sponsored by Tim Shaughnessy, of Louisville, changed all that.

"Since that point in time, roughly $1.5 billion have been contributed to funds for scholarships," Gleason said.

"You know, that's money that can give someone a college education and change their life," Shaughnessy said.

While there are scholarships based on financial need, there is also money available for every Kentucky student, based on high school achievement, to be used to attend college in the commonwealth.

Third year UofL student Jonathan Hughes has a 3.5 grade point average, but without the lottery funded KEES program, the Bardstown native said he would be facing debt.

"It would be a difficult future for me, very hindering for a student like me, to do great things in life without programs like that," Hughes said.

Lottery officials desperately want Kentuckians to know about success stories like Hughes.

"Statutorily we are prohibited from mentioning programs that benefit from proceeds in an advertisement for the lottery," Gleason said.

Every other lottery in the nation is allowed to advertise where the money goes.

Kentucky Lottery officials believe they could be taking in up to $40 million more if they could advertise where the money is distributed.

State Rep. Reginald Meeks, of Louisville, recently sponsored legislation to change the law, but his bill never got out of committee.

WLKY

Comments

dphillips's avatardphillips

There doesn't appear to be any accountability and that's not good.  Well, let's hope the money is geared toward education because I don't want to hear Kentucky is going broke!

TonyZinc

Probaly that money go to pocket of lottery officers,hahaha !

PERDUE

Lottery officials desperately want Kentuckians to know about success stories like Hughes.

"Statutorily we are prohibited from mentioning programs that benefit from proceeds in an advertisement for the lottery," Gleason said.

Every other lottery in the nation is allowed to advertise where the money goes.

Kentucky Lottery officials believe they could be taking in up to $40 million more if they could advertise where the money is distributed.

State Rep. Reginald Meeks, of Louisville, recently sponsored legislation to change the law, but his bill never got out of committee.

What happened? Why didn't Rep. Meeks' legislation to change the law, never get out of committee?

Who are the "Turkey's" that oppose this suggestion?

And why are they against letting the lottery players in Kentucky know where their willing contributions are going?

What are the "Turkey's" hiding?

If everything is on the up and up then this law would've been changed eons ago.

Remember voting will commence in a few days.

Pressure your representatives to change this law or boot their butts OUT with your vote!!!!

REMEMBER, THEY ANSWER TO YOU!! NOT YOU TO THEM!!!!

YOU HIRED THEM, DON'T HESITATE TO FIRE THEM!!!!

Littleoldlady's avatarLittleoldlady

Because Ky is a commonwealth instead of a state, they can pretty much do what they want.  It wouldn't surprise me where the money is going.  Some for education and some for shenanigans.  I am however shocked that for 8 years education got no money..no wonder their teachers run to TN so they can make higher salaries.  Their elementary, middle and high school conditions are shameful in some areas.

rdgrnr's avatarrdgrnr

Citizen:  Where does the money go?

Lawmaker:  There's a law prohibiting us from telling you where the money goes.

Citizen: Who in the hell wrote a stupid law like that?

Lawmaker: Uh, we did.

Citizen: Is that so you can steal money?

Lawmaker: There's a law prohibiting us from answering that.

Citizen: Did you write that law too?

Lawmaker: Uh, yeah.

Citizen:  Well alrighty then.

Constable: Move along now folks, there's nothing more to see here. Go on back to your homes. Go on, you heard me.

Chip P

Hi folks. Chip from the KY Lottery here. I'm seeing a tremendous amount on conjecture and misinformation in the posts that precede mine, so I hope you'll give me a minute to set the story straight.

How someone could say there's no accountability here is surprising. We're on open book - check our website at www.kylottery.com to see where our proceeds go, how many scholarships and grants have gone to each county and each school in our state, etc. If the info you want isn't there, let me know and I'll get it for you.

The post from Littleoldlady who says the lottery provided no educations funds for eight years isn't entirely accurate. There were eight years in our history where lottery proceeds went to our state's general fund. While these dollars weren't earmarked for education, the largest amount of general fund dollars in our state - 43.8% in the previous budget biennium - went to K through 12 education. The next highest expenditure of general fund dollars - 13.7% - went to higher education.

As for the law that prohibits us from advertising where our proceeds are spent, you have to go back to 1988 to get to the core of why this happened. In speaking with legislators who were debating our state's lottery legislation in that year, they'll tell you there was a tremendous amount of trepidation about what a lottery in our state was going to be like. While there'd been pari-mutuel betting in Kentucky for a long time, the lottery was a new animal. A legislator offered a floor amendment that prohibited us from advertising where our proceeds were spent, and it passed. Their rationale - there was fear that we'd run ads showing kids locked out of school, saying "buy lottery tickets or your kids won't be able to go to school". We feel that fear was unfounded, but at the time it's how legislators felt.

For many years we've tried to get this restriction overturned. The closest we've been was in 2006, when a bill to lift the restriction sailed through the House by a 81-9 vote. It was then sent to a Senate committee where it was never heard. During this past session, Rep. Reginald Meeks, our President and CEO Arch Gleason and myself testified before a House committee trying to get the ban lifted. The bill didn’t receive enough votes to get out of committee, and those voting against it generally expressed concern that we'd be attempting to get people to buy more lottery tickets during a bad economy.

We feel it's good public policy to let people know where these proceeds are spent. Ticket buyers fund these programs, and they should be given a better opportunity to know where the lottery funds go. Any legislator in this state will tell you by far the top question they get from constituents is about where lottery proceeds are spent. As the PR guy here I try as best I can to get this message out, but advertising would be a tremendous help in spreading the word.

That said, again I was surprised by some of the theories on this post, including one accusing the workers here of pocketing all the proceeds. That ain't happening! I'm on this board daily because I like to see what folks are saying. This site won’t allow me to post my e-mail address, but I believe you can reach me through my account here. If you ever have a question or concern, let me know. I'd appreciate the chance to clear up any misinformation or confusion that may relate to our operation.

I'll leave you with this - prior to 1999, college attendance in Kentucky had been flat for some time. Since the lottery-funded scholarship and grant programs started here that same year, college attendance in our state has jumped 40%. We like to think our proceeds played a part in that increase - it's something we're very proud of, and wish we had the opportunity to let more folks know about.

Todd's avatarTodd

Thanks Chip for posting your message.  I know the players here always appreciate hearing directly from folks at the state lottery offices.  Sometimes (not speaking about any state in particular) it seems that there is a wall of separation between the players and the folks running the lottery, and I wish more lottery personnel would chime in as you have done.  An open dialog always fosters more trust!  Thumbs Up

Chip P

Todd:

Your site is a great way to reach players. Although they may not be as active as we are in KY, I can promise you every PR shop in this industry is well aware of Lottery Post - and they're reading what's written! You do a terrific job of managing the best site out there in terms of news and information from the player perspective, and I really appreciate the opportunity to reach out to others with facts and insights.

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