Fueling The Lottery Debate

Amid the tumult over West Virginia's video lottery parlors, The New York Times has examined the role lotteries play in the revenue picture for the Mountain State and 41 of its peers.

"Lotteries have raised billions of dollars, and of the 42 states that have them, 23 earmark all or some of the money for education," the paper reported Sunday. But the Times' analysis concluded that "lotteries accounted for less than 1 percent to 5 percent of the total revenue for K-12 education last year in the states that use this money for schools."

The article pegs the West Virginia lottery's contribution to education at 1.1 percent of total K-12 education funding. The accompanying graphic also notes that video lottery sales were not counted for part of the analysis. A separate chart (not with the online edition) further noted that key lottery financial data from West Virginia was not available for the Times' analysis.

Figures from the North American Association of State and Provincial Lotteries suggest that about 28 percent of West Virginia's lottery revenues went to education between the 1986 start of its lottery system and the end of the 2006 fiscal year.

These figures also list 26 states as earmarking lottery revenues for education: 10 states dedicate all such revenue toward this area, while only four of the state provide a lower percentage to education than West Virginia.