Is It Time To Quit To Lottery?
Oklahoma Lottery: Boon or bust?
BY JENNIFER PALMER
Oklahoma’s lottery isn’t hitting the jackpot.
Total revenue is basically flat since the state’s lottery began in 2005, and sales of instant tickets, or scratchers, have steadily declined over the past three years, according to financial information provided by the Oklahoma Lottery Commission.
Scratcher sales were highest in the first year of the lottery, generating $111.3 million in fiscal year 2006. Instant tickets generated a low of $77.9 million in 2009; sales rose to $103 million in 2011 but had dipped to $89.4 million last year, lottery data shows.
Record Powerball and Mega Millions jackpots, like those in 2012 and 2013, offer a short-lived boost to scratcher sales, but the overall trend is down.