Oregon Secretary of State LaVonne Griffin Varade this week announced a new financial audit of the Oregon Lottery, the state’s second largest source of funding after income taxes.
The new audit comes after the COVID-19 pandemic shut down bars and taverns that generated most of the agency’s revenue through about 11,000 video lottery terminals. The company has shown very strong profits for two consecutive years.
Here’s how $1.678 billion in revenue in 2023 (down a fraction of 1% from 2022) stacks up historically.
Video lottery revenue is growing rapidly, even though the number of lottery tickets statewide is down 8.5% from a decade ago, according to agency statistics. That’s because more and more people are using video lotteries. Oregon’s per capita income was $261.12 in 2014, compared to $395.66 last year.
Within this figure, net video lottery revenue actually decreased slightly in 2023, although the game continues to generate approximately 70% of the agency’s net revenue.
One big change from last year: Numbers show state revenue from sports betting has increased significantly, far exceeding budget. The state earned $55.3 million in net revenue from sports bettors, an increase of 72% from 2022. Its net income came from a total of $565.5. 1 million bets on sports, which is 7.2% higher than the agency’s budget.
Although sports betting accounted for only a small portion (3.3%) of total lottery sales last year, the agency expects to replace some of the aging video lottery players with younger sports bettors. .
Lottery spokesman Matt Shelby said the lottery is pleased with the growth of its sportsbook, which is operating under a new deal with DraftKings starting in 2022.
“We introduced a scoreboard [in 2019] Then I switched to DraftKings,” Shelby says. “We’re effectively starting over from scratch. The player base is still maturing and sports betting is becoming more mainstream.”
The state’s addiction to gambling has made critics uncomfortable. “Oregon is unique in its reliance on lottery tax revenue at the expense of public health,” said Kitty Martz, executive director of the advocacy group Voices of Problem Gambling Recovery. “We need to prevent further public health impacts and put some legislation in place.”
Mertz and other critics have long pointed to the state’s contradictory positions. Through the Oregon Health Authority, the state not only provides mental health services, including funding for gambling addiction treatment, but also provides a variety of other services to families of people suffering from gambling addiction. Dependence. But the Oregon Lottery is tasked with raising money for education, economic development, parks, and other important services.
While lottery cash has proven attractive to lawmakers, Martz says it comes with a hidden long-term cost. “Let’s look back at the beginning of the opioid epidemic,” she says. “Then we vilified Big Pharma, but where were the legal regulations? Lotteries offer addictive products and are charged with self-regulating and maximizing profits. We need to better define how it serves the public interest.”
The audit also includes a list of the top 10 companies offering video lottery tickets in the state and historical context on how it has changed over time.
Shelby said the big increase at the top of the lottery supplier list is due to a relatively new option: buying and redeeming lottery tickets for players living in other states and, in some cases, overseas. He said it was done by a courier.
“The top four retailers are all related to delivery services,” Shelby said. “It’s like DoorDash for the lottery.”