The budget-saving state lottery is running well below projections in ticket sales and revenue for the state. Just $1.1 billion in sales and $350 million in net state revenue in the year ending June 2008, with state revenue of just $368 million expected in the next fiscal year.
Back in 2001, Roy Cordato and others at JLF said the state could expect $317 million in net revenue from a lottery based on sales of $933 million while Gov. Mike Easley projected $500 million on sales of $1.5 billion. By the time the lottery actually passed, in 2005, government projections were for $425 million a year in new revenue, a number that has never been approached.
Adjusting the 2001 JLF projection of $317 million for inflation yields $354 million. Go figure.
The lottery also gets more sales in poor counties and gives less to school districts with critical needs.
