Lawmakers Take Gamble On Idea Of Big Lottery Game For Big State Deficit

For state Sen. Andrea Stillman, it was, she said, “an interesting day of juxtapositions.”

First, the Waterford Democrat hosted a press conference marking National Problem Gambling Awareness Week. Then she presided at a public hearing on a bill calling for the state lottery to introduce a new, high-payout game to help stock the state's barren coffers.

Nobody came. At least to the hearing.

”That sends a message in itself,” Stillman said. “I thought we'd hear from somebody.”

The brainchild of state Sen. Thomas Colapietro, a Bristol Democrat, the bill calls for the state Division of Special Revenue to set a prize payout of at least 65 percent for one or more “special lotteries” that would be offered by the Connecticut Lottery Corp.

Colapietro, who said he couldn't attend the Public Safety and Security Committee's public hearing on the bill because he was at another one, said he felt bad that Stillman “kind of got caught in the middle” of Problem Gambling Awareness Week and the lottery

proposal. “It was just an idea for raising funds for the state because we're in such dire straits,” he said.

”We certainly don't want to encourage gambling.”

Stillman said the idea - likely headed nowhere based on the hearing turnout - was to introduce a special lottery game that would be marketed as a deficit-reducer. “The proceeds would go toward retiring the state's debt,” she said.

And that would be precisely the wrong approach for the state to be taking, according to Marvin Steinberg, executive director of the Connecticut Council on Problem Gambling.

”That's really unfortunate if the state is now attempting to associate the downturn with people gambling more at a time when they're losing their jobs, their retirements,” he said. “It's one thing to create games, but to label them as deficit-reduction is not very aware or sensitive to the issue of problem gambling.”

Steinberg attended the press conference Tuesday at which the Connecticut Partnership for Responsible Gambling - a coalition of Steinberg's organization, the Connecticut Lottery Corp. and the state Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services - unveiled a public service announcement on the dangers of underage gambling. He said he would have been happy to testify at the hearing on the lottery bill, too, had he been aware of it.

He said that while all forms of gambling have felt the effects of the recession, lottery sales tend to be more resilient than most. Lottery tickets, he noted, are relatively inexpensive, and they're available in the places people regularly frequent. That could make some lottery players especially susceptible to aggressive marketing, he said.

”This is not a time to tie the state deficit to gambling,” Steinberg said.

The Connecticut Lottery Corp, a quasi-public agency authorized by the legislature, already pays out in prizes more than 65 percent of the revenue it takes in on some games, according to Diane Patterson, the agency's director of communications.

”Each game has a different payout, and the average is 61 percent,” she said. “I'd say the highest is 70 percent.”

The lottery's $998.5 million in sales during the fiscal year that ended June 30 set a record. About $283 million, or 28 percent, went to the state's general fund. Six percent went to retailer commissions and 5 percent to the lottery's operational costs.



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