Saturday, March 18, 2000
Finan wary of Ohio in Powerball
But governor likes panel's suggestion to boost profits
BY JOHN McCARTHY
The Associated Press
COLUMBUS — Gov. Bob Taft supports a special commission's suggestion that Ohio join other states in the lottery game Powerball. But Senate President Richard Finan said Friday that the state should shore up its own Super Lotto game first.
Mr. Taft embraced the Lottery Profits Review Commission's recommendation that the Legislature authorize the Ohio Lottery Commission to bring in multistate games like Powerball, Taft spokesman Scott Milburn said.
The game is played in 20 states and the District of Columbia. Its minimum jackpot is $10 million, compared with Super Lotto's $4 million base prize.
Some Powerball jackpots have topped $100 million, including a re cord $295.7 million last July that was shared by 13 machinists who worked together in the Columbus suburb of Westerville. Their ticket was bought in Richmond, Ind. The Super Lotto jackpot seldom exceeds $30 million.
Mr. Finan said participating in Powerball likely would come at the expense of Super Lotto and the profits it generates for schools. He likened it to “eating your seed corn.”
“If somebody can show me that's not the case, that it would really work, then we'd look at it,” said Mr. Finan, R-Evendale.
Mr. Milburn said Mr. Taft is willing to work with lawmakers to come up with solutions that would stabilize Ohio's lottery profits. During the budget years of 1997-99, sales declined each year. Mr. Taft welcomed the profits commission's report, which was authorized by lawmakers last year in the education budget.
“He does not really want to expand the lottery but stabilize it. It's in decline and that means education money is in decline,” Mr. Milburn said. “The recommendations coming out of the commission, the governor believes, are solid. The discussion beginning now with the Legislature is exactly the discussion the governor wants to happen.”
The commission also recommended lifting the requirement that all lottery games return a 30 percent profit. That could allow the Lottery Commission to set higher jackpots, the profits commission said.
The decline in sales can be traced to competition from multistate lotteries operating in surrounding states; and casino gambling in Detroit and Windsor, Ontario, and on riverboats on the Ohio River in southeast Indiana.
Mr. Finan said Powerball jackpots — except for the nine-digit payouts — draw few Ohio residents to states that have the game. He said raising the Super Lotto jackpots would keep even more players at home.
“I think that's what I would rather try first. If you were to start at a $10 million jackpot, you would see sales increase,” Mr. Finan said.
The lottery has the authority to raise jackpots on its own, lottery spokeswoman Sandy Lesko Mounts said. But that's unlikely to happen because a $10 million jackpot would not make the state any more money than a $4 million payout. Super Lotto makes a profit only when the jackpot exceeds $20 million.
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