The Lottery Start

The state’s new lottery is off to a great start, taking in nearly $2 million a day during its first week, far above the projected $1 million a day that lottery officials had expected.

Obviously, that level of ticket sales won’t continue forever.

Ernie Passailaigue, the lottery director, said lottery play for scratch-off tickets would eventually drop off. However, he’s now thinking the lottery may actually bring in enough revenue to award $102.3 million in scholarships annually from gross sales of $400 million. That would be good for the students who will benefit. Lt. Gov. Bill Halter surely has a smile on his face.

We were skeptical of the lottery – and still don’t like the idea of one – but we certainly can’t argue with Passailaigue’s success in getting it off the ground.

While two-thirds of the voters approved the creation of the lottery to fund college scholarships last year, we opposed it. It simply didn’t seem right for government to be in the business of promoting long-odds gambling to the poor and uneducated people who will spend the largest share of their incomes on tickets.

When sales dip, as they surely will, we still hope the state doesn’t resort to ads that appeal to the poor to bring in more money.

But the lottery is here, and we tip our caps to those who got it off to a roaring start. May they handle it in such a way as to reduce our skepticism. And may something very good – more college graduates – come out of this thing in the end.