Oklahoma governor approves increased lottery payouts

May 3, 2017, 3:34 pm (3 comments)

Oklahoma Lottery

Gov. Mary Fallin signed legislation Tuesday that could lead to higher Oklahoma Lottery prize amounts and higher revenue to education.

Lottery officials believe the law will spur more purchases of instant-win scratcher tickets, which in turn will boost funding for public schools, CareerTech institutions, colleges and universities.

House Bill 1837 doesn't affect the multi-state lottery games like Powerball, but people who buy scratch-off tickets should see a change in July.

The Oklahoma Lottery will be able to raise prize amounts because the bill repeals its mandatory profit margin. Some revenue from lottery sales goes to the Education Trust Fund. State law requires that at least 35 percent of all proceeds have to be diverted to the fund.

Oklahoma Lottery Executive Director Rollo Redburn said current law restricts how much can be paid in prizes. In 2013, the Lottery lowered payouts so it could comply with the profit restriction. With lower payouts, Redburn said, the Lottery lost players.

"What we have been telling (lawmakers) is if they did not change this law, over the next five years we expected that we would be getting about $25 million less," Redburn said. "With the law change, we would expect it to be $85 million more, and that's conservatively."

Oklahoman

Comments

mypiemaster's avatarmypiemaster

The devil is in the details.

ronki

Good for them never happen in  North Carolina they are to Greedy   you spend 10 - 20 - 30 on a scratch off 9 times out of 10 you get nothing back but they say it's all about fun                                                                                                                                                                               

lucky6025

So what he is underhandedly saying is we the politicians need to be able to steal more money from your lottery and by getting rid of the old law and putting in new one, we will be able to steal the funds that are supposed to be for education and then each year we will complain people not playing enough this is why no fund going towards education. Most states if you really look have taken the money that is supposed to go towards education and now it goes to general fund and presto it can be used for anything, not what it was intended for.

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