In the last half of 2018, the 46-year-old Illinois lottery raised $344 million for the state school fund. But in the last six months of 2019, revenues from the lottery for education dropped $64 million, or 18 percent, to $280 million.
Observers blame an increase in gambling options—like video gambling machines—plus legalized marijuana competing for gamblers’ discretionary dollars.
Lottery officials said a late-year injection of revenue wasn’t included in the state report—it would have shown the 2019 drop as $32 million, not $64 million. Also, they said a record-breaking Mega Millions in 2018 artificially boosted the results for that year.
Better Government Association Director David Greising said, “The numbers are new, but these problems at the Illinois Lottery are not new.” He noted that Camelot, the private company hired to run Illinois’ lottery for $26 million a year, told Crain’s Chicago 18 months ago that sales would increase 3.5 percent.
“Do people want to get high, or do they want to gamble?” Greising asked. “When economic times get tight they probably can’t do both.”
He warned, “If, as some think, a recession will hit in late 2020, those numbers will really start to go down.”
