Kentucky Lottery has Unique Role

KENTUCKY – As reported by the Kentucky Advocate-Messenger: "Since it was founded in April 1989, it has generated nearly $8 billion in sales and contributed more $2 billion in revenue to the state treasury. But this multibillion-dollar enterprise is not your typical big business.

"The billions in sales it has generated come not from the sale of goods or services but from the sale of tickets. The $2 billion in revenue it has produced for the state comes not from taxes but from proceeds off the sale of tickets.

"It is the Kentucky State Lottery Corp., a unique entity that is a hybrid - part business, part state government, part state-sanctioned gambling operation and part non-profit scholarship and grant underwriter.

"And all good for the state, according to Chip Polston, vice president of communications and government and public relations for the lottery corporation.

"…While the numbers, increasing almost every year since fiscal year 1989, appear to support Polston's claim that the lottery has been a successful business enterprise, Polston stressed that the organization has been more than a business or a state-sanctioned gambling operation and winners have included more than the customers who have won prize money.

"He said the most important numbers are those that add up to the more than $2 billion in proceeds - the money leftover after prize winners and retailers have been paid and administrative costs have been covered - that has gone to the state…"