Lottery losing ground

Lottery losing ground

FREDERICKSBURG — Support for a Virginia lottery is slipping, state Del. J.W. “Billy” O’Brien Jr. said Friday, but he believes it would win narrow approval if voters decided the issue today.

Del. O’Brien (D-Virginia Beach) sponsored the measure that allows Virginians to decide in the November general election whether the state will sponsor a lottery. Speaking to a Virginia Press Association luncheon, Del. O’Brien said, “I think we’ve lost a little bit of ground” since the General Assembly approved the referendum measure. But, he said, “I think that if it were taken right now, I think it would pass.”

Del. O’Brien cited a poll taken by a Norfolk newspaper, which showed 63 percent of the voters favor a lottery. Since then, he said, support has dropped to 55 percent, a drop he attributed to efforts by anti-lottery forces.

“The potential is there for passage,” he said. Prolottery forces, he said, are taking a poll of their own. “Once that poll has been taken, we’ll take a look at developing a strategy,” he said. He declined to say who was taking the poll or who was paying for it.

But he said the campaign for passage of his measure is likely to be paid for by the people who would profit from a lottery, people who produce lottery computers, tickets and parpaphernalia. Special interest groups, he said, commonly finance efforts to obtain favorable action on legislation in their self interest.

Each computer placed in a retail lottery ticket outlet, he said, would cost $13,000. “There is no question that some people are going to make a lot of money in this,” he said. “There is a lot of money there. It is just like starting up a Fortune 500 company in the state.”

Computers, Del. O’Brien suggested, are the key ingredient in ensuring an honest lottery. “We are not going to have any fraud,” he said. “With the advent of computers, it is virtually impossible.” He described how the computer would instantly record ticket sales and distribute the proceeds to the prize, state revenue, administrative and retailer payment funds.

He said he expected the computers to be installed in grocery stores, convenience stores and other small retail establishments.

Del. O’Brien told the audience, a group of newspaper editors, reporters, circulation managers and advertising workers, that the lottery would raise $450 million a year in revenue for the state and help forestall a sales tax increase. He estimated the start-up costs of the lottery at from $750,000 to $2 million. But he said the cost would be recovered in the first year of the lottery’s operation.

If voters approve the lottery, Del. O’Brien’s measure would become effective Dec. 1.