Lawmakers and local officials in the nation’s western-most states are pushing for the creation of state lotteries.
In Hawaii, state Rep. Joe Souki recently introduced a bill that would create a state lottery and keno game by authorizing the Hawaii Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs to license a single entity to operate both.
Souki’s measure, House Bill 1830, says a state lottery would improve educational, health care, and social welfare opportunities for state residents and help pay for governmental services, local improvements, and community tax breaks.
Early indications are Souki’s bill has significant support, and a similar likely will be introduced in Hawaii’s Senate.
In Alaska, former Anchorage Mayor Dan Sullivan has been lobbying state lawmakers to authorize creation of a state lottery.
Sullivan says a lottery will reduce Alaska’s $3.8 billion budget shortfall and is lobbying Alaska lawmakers to gain their support for a measure that would create a state lottery and allow Alaska to take part in games conducted in multiple states, such as Powerball.
Sullivan says lotteries are the nation’s only form of voluntary taxation and is the volunteer leader of the ad-hoc Alaska Lottery Coalition, which aims to create a state lottery. While Alaska does not have a lottery, it does have pull-tabs and bingo, and in 2014 took in about $2.5 million in tax revenue from those games.
Sullivan and the Alaska Lottery coalition say the state would do much better with a statewide lottery, in which people can risk a little bit of their discretionary income in hopes of winning a large jackpot.
