A Misplaced Priority: Lottery Gets Prime Real Estate

Chuck Sheketoff

It doesn’t take a degree in web page design to realize that the top center spot on a page is prime real estate, especially on a home page. Like the banner headline on a fold-and-carry newspaper, that’s the top thing webpage owners want the readers to see because that’s where our eyes first go.

The State of Oregon last week apparently thought the most important thing to tell readers visiting www.oregon.gov was “Latest Oregon Lottery Raffle game debuts Oct. 4.”

Really? That was the most important thing for Oregonians visiting our state’s webpage to see? Why did that rank above the article telling unemployed Oregonians how to “Get Unemployment Benefits Quickly” or the article asking Oregonians if they “Want to find out where your Oregon tax dollars go?”

The Oregon Lottery — a tax on those with a poor understanding of statistics — is a relatively small source of revenue for the state. It provides only about 2 percent of our total funds budget, and only about 7 percent of the General Fund and Lottery Funds budget.

But from all the billboards and public relations gimmicks you’d think that our budgetary fate turns on there being enough mathematically challenged Oregonians who keep pinning their hopes on the Oregon Lottery’s gambling schemes. No wonder that almost nine out of ten (88%) of Oregonians can’t identify Oregon’s largest source of revenue and largest spending category from multiple choice lists.

Oregonians would be better served by better priorities on the home page for the State of Oregon. Instead of acting as an advertising agency for our state-run gambling industry, the State’s home page ought to discuss how restaurants, bars and taverns are addicted to overgenerous retailer commissions, and ought to help the Department of Human Services reach more troubled people with the state’s gambling addiction program.

“Lottery Raffle game” sounds like the Department of Redundancy Department. And placing an announcement about it at the top or Oregon’s home page shows how the Lottery has become a redundant example of a misplaced priority for balancing Oregon's budget.

By Chuck Sheketoff Oct. 05, 2009