S.C. Education Lottery: $1 Billion And Counting
S.C. Education Lottery has lived up to its promise
If you want a great example of an S.C. public policy success, look no further than the S.C. Education Lottery, which last week sent its one billionth dollar to the state treasury. In fewer than four years, losing bets from lottery players have financed more than $791 million in scholarships and endowed chair at research universities, and more than $330 million to supplement the teaching of math, science, reading and social studies in S.C. public schools.
Lottery dollars, as well, have financed public school technology, textbooks and school buses. The lottery has sent more than $31 million to other educational needs, including county libraries, Boys and Girls Clubs, educational television and alcohol and drug abuse programs.
Lottery dollars also finance help programs for players who develop gambling addictions - a reminder that this form of "free" state revenue has a dark side. Despite the long odds that guarantee most lottery bets will be losers, some folks compulsively spend more money than they should on tickets - money that should be devoted to basic family needs. The fear that could happen was one reason the 2000 General Assembly debate over offering S.C. voters a constitutional amendment to authorize a lottery was so heated. But rightly or wrongly, lawmakers adopted the program - then kept their promise to spend the proceeds on education, scholarships, especially, in enabling legislation passed in 2002.
There is one cloud on the lottery's horizon - the N.C. General Assembly's passage of an education lottery this year. The N.C. games will begin this spring. When they do, S.C. lottery sales in counties bordering the state line, including Horry, are likely to decline. For that reason, it may take the S.C. Education Lottery a little longer to send its second billion dollars to the S.C. treasury.
If revenue declines, S.C. legislators will have to become more disciplined in appropriating lottery dollars for educational programs - either cutting back on spending or replacing lottery dollars with tax dollars. Those decisions - if they become necessary - are certain to be painful.
It is to legislators' credit, however, that they thus far have resisted the temptation to shrink spending of tax dollars on education and replace them with lottery dollars.
That's a big part of the reason the lottery program - despite its down side - has been a success for South Carolina.