Is a broken promise part of the cause of the strike by LAUSD teachers?
It's been just over three years since I wrote a two-part blog on how the California Lottery stopped fulfilling the commitment to provide 34% of its revenues to public schools and universities in California. You can read Part I and Part II by clicking the links.
Then came AB 142 and the commitment of 34% of every lottery dollar going to public education ended. New formulae were used to increase the prize pools to drive ticket sales higher and higher. The bill was introduced by former Assembly member Mary Hayashi. If the name seems familiar, you might remember her from her 2011 arrest for shoplifting nearly $2,500 in merchandise from a Neiman-Marcus store.
Ticket sales did go up. The thing is, the increase is mostly among the Scratcher ticket, rather than the Super Lotto, Mega-Millions and Powerball games, where the biggest prizes are found. Part of the reason for the growth of Scratcher ticket sales is the dramatic increase in the price of some of those tickets.
At the moment there are three different types of Scratcher ticket games where each ticket has a price of $30. They all offer a top jackpot of $10 million. California Millions is one of the three games. There are four of those prizes in this game, and the odds of winning one of them are 3,013,433 to 1. So far only one of those prizes has been claimed.
There are eight different Scratcher games where the tickets cost $20. The odds of winning the top prize of $5 million in the Jackpot Fortune game are 3,079,065 to 1. Again, four possible winners and only one has been found thus far. Interesting how the price is 2/3rds as much as the $30 ticket but the prize is only 1/2 of the big prize.
When I was playing those Scratcher tickets regularly, the price points were $1, $2, and $5, with the rare special offering of a $10 ticket. I stopped playing those games in 2009 when I got very ill for the first time.
So is it the bigger prizes that is driving the increase, or is it the ever growing price point of those Scratcher tickets?
The annual CA Lottery Report to the Public for the Lottery's fiscal year that ended on 6/30/2017 is not yet published. But I was able to find the data needed to include that year in an update of the data from those blogs published three years ago.
As you can see, ticket sales were down in the most recent fiscal year. So was the amount that went to public education, as well as the percentage of ticket sales. In spite of #DishonestDonnie's claims of a great economy, in spite of lowered unemployment in California.
If the original commitment of 34% were in force at the moment, given the ticket sales in the most recent fiscal years; public education would have received an additional $700.3 million dollars.
Would ticket sales fall all that much if the top prize on those $30 games was $7 million rather than $10 million? If the other prizes were slightly reduced? I don't think a tweak to the prize pool would matter all that much, given how fervently people are buying Scratcher tickets.
One indication of this is that while per capita spending on Lottery in California is up to $160 from the $131 three years ago, we're lagging further behind the nationwide per capita average of $225.
In late 2018 the Washington Post reported that on average, 32% of state lottery revenue went to state programs. We're 8% behind the average.
Let's let Governor Newsom know this is something that needs another look.
Then came AB 142 and the commitment of 34% of every lottery dollar going to public education ended. New formulae were used to increase the prize pools to drive ticket sales higher and higher. The bill was introduced by former Assembly member Mary Hayashi. If the name seems familiar, you might remember her from her 2011 arrest for shoplifting nearly $2,500 in merchandise from a Neiman-Marcus store.
Ticket sales did go up. The thing is, the increase is mostly among the Scratcher ticket, rather than the Super Lotto, Mega-Millions and Powerball games, where the biggest prizes are found. Part of the reason for the growth of Scratcher ticket sales is the dramatic increase in the price of some of those tickets.
At the moment there are three different types of Scratcher ticket games where each ticket has a price of $30. They all offer a top jackpot of $10 million. California Millions is one of the three games. There are four of those prizes in this game, and the odds of winning one of them are 3,013,433 to 1. So far only one of those prizes has been claimed.
There are eight different Scratcher games where the tickets cost $20. The odds of winning the top prize of $5 million in the Jackpot Fortune game are 3,079,065 to 1. Again, four possible winners and only one has been found thus far. Interesting how the price is 2/3rds as much as the $30 ticket but the prize is only 1/2 of the big prize.
When I was playing those Scratcher tickets regularly, the price points were $1, $2, and $5, with the rare special offering of a $10 ticket. I stopped playing those games in 2009 when I got very ill for the first time.
So is it the bigger prizes that is driving the increase, or is it the ever growing price point of those Scratcher tickets?
The annual CA Lottery Report to the Public for the Lottery's fiscal year that ended on 6/30/2017 is not yet published. But I was able to find the data needed to include that year in an update of the data from those blogs published three years ago.
| 34% of total | Amount to | Actual % to | |||||
| Year | Revenues | revenues | Education Fund | Education Fund | |||
| 2005 | 3,333,620,669 | 1,133,431,027 | 1,148,775,087 | 34.46% | |||
| 2006 | 3,584,996,251 | 1,218,898,725 | 1,258,507,917 | 35.10% | |||
| 2007 | 3,318,346,505 | 1,128,237,812 | 1,176,929,117 | 35.47% | |||
| 2008 | 3,049,620,915 | 1,036,871,111 | 1,069,328,092 | 35.06% | |||
| 2009 | 2,954,839,094 | 1,004,645,292 | 1,027,728,959 | 34.78% | |||
| 2010 | 3,040,959,866 | 1,033,926,354 | 1,072,496,752 | 35.27% | |||
| 2011 | 3,438,577,998 | 1,169,116,519 | 1,102,860,768 | 32.07% | |||
| 2012 | 4,371,491,746 | 1,486,307,194 | 1,300,240,379 | 29.74% | |||
| 2013 | 4,445,874,040 | 1,511,597,174 | 1,262,058,020 | 28.39% | |||
| 2014 | 5,034,661,424 | 1,711,784,884 | 1,327,928,392 | 26.38% | |||
| 2015 | 5,524,850,593 | 1,878,449,202 | 1,391,545,550 | 25.19% | |||
| 2016 | 6,275,597,288 | 2,133,703,078 | 1,587,416,599 | 25.30% | |||
| 2017 | 6,233,468,423 | 2,119,379,264 | 1,499,004,486 | 24.05% |
As you can see, ticket sales were down in the most recent fiscal year. So was the amount that went to public education, as well as the percentage of ticket sales. In spite of #DishonestDonnie's claims of a great economy, in spite of lowered unemployment in California.
If the original commitment of 34% were in force at the moment, given the ticket sales in the most recent fiscal years; public education would have received an additional $700.3 million dollars.
Would ticket sales fall all that much if the top prize on those $30 games was $7 million rather than $10 million? If the other prizes were slightly reduced? I don't think a tweak to the prize pool would matter all that much, given how fervently people are buying Scratcher tickets.
One indication of this is that while per capita spending on Lottery in California is up to $160 from the $131 three years ago, we're lagging further behind the nationwide per capita average of $225.
In late 2018 the Washington Post reported that on average, 32% of state lottery revenue went to state programs. We're 8% behind the average.
Let's let Governor Newsom know this is something that needs another look.
posted by me at 6:42 AM
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