"Hi I'm Asa Hutchinson, governor of the great state of Arkansas, and I want you to win, win, win. But, my fellow Arkansans, you can't win if you don't play!"
Is that what's in our future? The state's chief executive looking for ways to increase the amount of money taken out of residents wallets and transferred to Arkansas students going to college?
What’s the point?
Shifting responsibility for the state lottery’s success or lack of it to the governor isn’t a sure thing when it comes to addressing the influences that affect how much revenue it generates.
The Arkansas General Assembly sure wants the governor involved.
On Tuesday, the state House of Representatives sent to the governor's desk a bill that will abolish the Arkansas Lottery Commission and require the governor to appoint the director of the state's six-year-old gamble.
Senate Bill 7 also creates a within the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration an Office of the Arkansas Lottery.
It is a sweeping change to the lottery system Arkansas voters adopted in 2008. The General Assembly then enacted a law in 2009 that officially created the lottery and set up a nine-member commission to oversee its operations. The governor, Senate president pro tempore and the speaker of the House each appoint three members to the commission, which in turn hires a lottery director.
Back then, legislative backers of the lottery structure said it would set it up to run like a business and keep politics an arm's length away. Mike Beebe, who recently departed the governor's office, was pleased as punch to stay clear of any entanglements with the lottery. But controversy has hovered around the lottery from its earliest days, particularly around some of the expense reimbursements, management practices and pay of the full-time people hired to make the lottery a success.
Why all the gymnastics now over the structure behind the state's program of gambling? Arkansas' bet on the lottery has paid off, but not as lucratively as projected. For two years, the revenue raised by the lottery has declined, and that's payoff for lawmakers. They've had to cut the size of scholarships offered. No politician likes to go home to explain why sons and daughters aren't getting the state scholarship aid once promised.
Something had to give. Like like a chronic gambler, the state basically is overextended. The payout to meet the obligations of promised scholarships is nearly $100 million a year. Lottery revenue isn't keeping up. We'd like to believe Arkansans have gotten wise to the false hope of winning big money through state-run lotteries, but it's far more likely they've just got many, many more options for spending their money on gambling. Recent years have seen incredible growth in the opportunities in and around Arkansas to gamble. Oaklawn Jockey Club in Hot Springs should really be called Oaklawn Casino and Occasional Horse Track.
The lottery was supposed to be all fun and games. But Arkansas students continue to get less money even as the bills for higher education continue to grow.
So now, it's in the hands of the executive branch, or will be once Hutchinson signs off on the bill or lets it become law on its own. Hutchinson is now governor and chief gaming agent.
Supporters of the change hope the governor and his appointed director can more readily and professionally manage the staff and the operation of the state lottery. Just like they were buying a scratch-off game, lawmakers decided it was worth a shot.
We're skeptical. Governors have far more important things to do than making sure the lottery gets better at talking Arkansans out of their hard-earned cash, but that's exactly what his office will be charged with doing. A successful lottery is one that best loosens the grip of Arkansas players on their wallets. Is the governor's office made for that?
But we can't argue that the system in place has achieved the most success on behalf of students pursuing higher education in Arkansas. The question is, what can the governor and this new structure do about it? Some of the existing lottery administration's ideas to grow the lottery have been shot down by the very same General Assembly now restructuring it. Lawmakers blocked the attempt to adopt Keno-style games that would act like mini-lotteries at cafes, truck stops, bowling alleys and such. They've also resisted the lottery's efforts to allow customers to use debit cards for purchasing lottery tickets.
A wildly successful lottery isn't necessarily a good thing. That's why lawmakers have been hesitant to allow tactics designed to ease the transfer of money from players hands to college students' scholarships. But that's exactly the job they've now given the governor.
We're not betting on a quick turnaround, but hopefully the lottery itself can avoid some of the management questions that have marred its operation for the last several years.
Commentary on 02/27/2015