The holiday season can be a time for deep thinking, so here’s a philosophical question we get from time to time: Why do states have lotteries, anyway? There’s a really long history behind the answer, but I’ll do my best to keep it brief here. It comes down to regulation and revenues.
Lotteries have operated here in the United States since the earliest days of our country. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and John Hancock all had their own lotteries to raise money for important causes, including the Revolutionary War, the building of roads and bridges and construction of our country’s earliest schools and universities. There was a severe cash shortage in the Colonies, and I mean that literally. In fact, when the first shot of the Revolutionary War was fired, there were only two banks in all of the Colonies. Then, as now, lotteries were an effective way to gather cash to pay for big projects.
But in the late 1800s, scandals involving privately operated and unregulated lotteries led to legislation that effectively banned lotteries in America for about 70 years. But lottery entertainment didn’t go away during that time. It just went underground -- and it often was offered by entities that weren’t doing good things with the proceeds (think organized crime).
Modern lotteries arrived in 1963 when the state of New Hampshire implemented a state sweepstakes or lottery. Through the years, more states have continued to pass legislation allowing lotteries, and today, there are lotteries in 44 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
With state regulation, lotteries are open to scrutiny, with Board meetings and legislative hearings that provide public access. With access comes information about your state’s lottery, how it operates and where the money goes.
If you’ve ever got a question about the Iowa Lottery, just give us a shout. We’ll do our best to get the answer.
Hi, Rose. Under state law here in Iowa, lottery winners' information is public. That has been the case since our lottery's start in 1985. I think state lawmakers put that language in place as an additional security feature to ensure the integrity of lottery games.
Posted by: Mary Neubauer | January 06, 2016 at 11:10 PM
Why can't Iowans that win a jackpot remain anonymous ?
Posted by: Rose Keller | January 06, 2016 at 05:34 PM