At $1 billion, Oregon hits lottery jackpot

Sunday, March 05, 2006 posted 08:09 PM EST

PORTLAND - It started with a simple scratch-off game, an almost mom-and-pop approach to the take-a-chance, get-rich-quick, working guy's dollar-shot-at-a-dream world of legalized gambling.

A few people have gotten rich.

But the state has gotten richer and is getting richer still.

In the new quarterly revenue forecast, it is predicted that Oregon's lottery revenue for the current budget cycle should hit $1 billion for the first time, about $69 million more than predicted.

Of the $69 million, $25 million is spoken for. Various interests, especially education, are circling around the remainder.

The new figure represents about one dollar in every 13 the state has to spend. It makes the $60 million or so the lottery brought in after voters established it in 1984 look like chump change.

Lottery revenue took off after video poker was introduced in 1992 and again when casino-style ''line games'' were added last year.

Profits fund projects that include education, state parks, salmon recovery programs, economic development, and athletic scholarships at state schools. One percent goes to treat gambling addiction.

Still, not everybody is thrilled.

''I think from my standpoint it has become the financial means of most political resort,'' said David Leslie, executive director of the Ecumenical Council of Oregon.

''The consequence of that is that we have effectively tabled any discussion in recent years on tax reform or other sources of revenue to fund basic state services.''

Leslie said that as lottery revenue rises, ''funding for schools, health care and public safety continues to drop.''

He called the lottery a regressive tax - those least able to afford to lose pay a disproportionate share - albeit a voluntary one.

''To succeed, a lottery needs a class of people who are problem gamblers and pathological gamblers,'' Leslie said. The $1 billion milestone, he said, ''is not something in our mind to be proud of.''

Addicted or not, with $1 billion in play, the state ''certainly depends'' heavily on the income these days, lottery spokesman Chuck Bauman said. Most lottery profits, 64 percent, go to education.

The video poker and line games bring in about 80 percent of the lottery's revenue.

''Ideally, we would love to have a lot of people play just a little,'' he said.

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