Ohio lottery wants to expand its operating budget

Despite registering good results in 2016, the state lottery is seeking an increase in its budget.

US.- After they announced that they destined more than US$1 billion to education programs, the Ohio Lottery said that they’re looking for a bigger assignment in the state budget in order to fund advertising, payroll and jackpot.

Whilst the Ohio Lottery is seeking a US$32 million increase in the budget for the next two years, Ohio’s governor John Kasich said that the revenue is getting smaller and that they should be ready for funding to drop slightly. The lottery also wants the agents to accept debit and credit cards in order to get more young adults to buy tickets. Dennis Berg, Ohio Lottery executive director, said that that traditional lottery games reported US$3 billion in sales in the last fiscal year, which represents an increase of US$167 million compared to the previous period.

Back in September, a study commissioned by the Kasich administration said that the Ohio Lottery should become a “quasi-public” corporation to operate more efficiently, avoid unnecessary government regulation and expand into online gaming. The study that was conducted by Spectrum Gaming Group concluded that the current structure, which operates out of the governor’s office, is inefficient, slow to react to market conditions and subject to too much “control and oversight” by the several state agencies and state lawmakers.