Lottery panel: Education contributions are up
With the minds of many Oklahoma citizens focused on education funding, the Oklahoma Lottery Commission took time Wednesday to say it’s not to blame for sagging school budgets.
Lottery sales have increased 40 percent since last July, the commission said in a news release. Sales of instant games, its best-selling product, are drastically outpacing sales from a year ago.
“As of today, the lottery is projecting a 20 percent increase over its education contribution last year,” the commission wrote to reporters.
Last fiscal year, the lottery provided about $53 million for education. Administrators are projecting that it will provide $63 million this year, said Jay Finks, director of marketing and administration for the lottery.
The lottery’s comments came on the third day of a massive teacher walkout propelled by a desire to increase education funding. Profits from the lottery are placed in a trust fund and then doled out to education through a formula set by the Legislature.
Forty-five percent of lottery profits are spent on K-12 public education, about 40 percent is spent on higher education and 5.5 percent goes to CareerTech schools. The Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services also gets $750,000 annually. The remainder is divided between a teachers’ retirement system and a school consolidation fund.
All annual contributions more than $50 million go specifically to common education STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) and reading programs.
The Lottery Commission credited a bill passed by the Legislature last year with improving lottery sales by removing “an antiquated profit requirement that handcuffed” the lottery because it limited the amount of money it could spend on prizes. The requirement “caused sales to dwindle and education contributions to trail,” according to the commission.
Without the law change, lottery officials believed the lottery would have only provided $48 million for education this fiscal year.
“This law is what many consider to be the reason the lottery was unable to meet original projections from the early 2000s,” the commission wrote.
Since House Bill 1837 removed the requirement, the lottery has seen “measurably increased playership,” according to the commission. The bill was written by Rep. Leslie Osborn, R-Mustang, and Sen. Kim David, R-Porter.
“The lottery looks forward to continuing to roll out new games and providing the best possible player experience for Oklahomans,” the commission said Wednesday.