Campaign  Georgia
A  Political  Journal

Georgia’s  Lottery:  The  Dark  Side  of  Hope
Part 1.

“Gambling  money is fast money.  Fast money corrupts.  State run gambling  will corrupt state government.”  That’s  how  Wash Larsen, a brilliant legislator from Dublin, Georgia, summed up  his opposition to legalized  horse racing  in the state during the 1970s.

It was a hot issue for several years, championed by the state’s Lt. Governor, Zell Miller.  But gambling did not come to Georgia until Miller got elected Governor in 1990, campaigning on a state lottery “for education”.  Miller got it put on the ballot, the voters bought the idea, and Georgia Lotto and a myriad of other games were born.

Wash Larsen’s words have proved  accurate.  Fast Gambling money influenced every step in the process.  Gaming interests supported Miller’s campaigns for  Lieutenant Governor, and it is safe to say  lottery interests poured money into  his campaign for Governor.   When the lottery amendment was placed before Georgia’s voters in 1992, those same few firms which had bankrolled the lottery votes in every other state spent huge sums to get it passed.

Once the amendment was approved, legislation was enacted to establish the lottery.  To protect the taxpayers of Georgia, Georgia’s lottery was set up as a freestanding government owned corporation.  The faith and credit of the state is not pledged, in case the lottery fails.  The Governor appoints its board of directors.

Strangely, the legislation exempted the lottery from Georgia’s conflict of interest laws, bidding procedures, etc. which supposedly discourage governmental hanky-panky.  This is particularly alarming.   There are only  a few lottery suppliers of tickets, machines, and computers: contracts with these firms amount to hundreds of millions of dollars.   Without stringent safeguards, massive graft and corruption is possible when such sums are involved.  Even if none has occurred, the legislation specifically left the door open to abuse. So far as I know, no one ever investigated possible links between  vendors and Zell Miller’s campaigns, lottery board members, or employees.

The legislation granted Governor Miller complete authority to set  up the educational programs the lottery would pay for, and the way lottery funds  would be spent on them.  It was an astounding  transfer  of money and power from the legislature and State Department of  education to the Governor’s office.

Miller made the most of his newfound power and the hundreds of millions of “free” dollars at his disposal  (the lottery took in more than one billion dollars the first year.)   Not only was the legislature bypassed, the State Board of Education was usually ignored, too.  Funds  were usually distributed directly to local school systems or individual educational facilities.    He set up a college scholarship program for kids with “B” averages, and technical institute programs for all other high school graduates.  He set up a state-wide pre-kindergarden program.  He set up a fund for technological “support” for colleges.    The Hope scholarships went through a long-time state agency, the State Scholarship commission.

The scholarship covered tuition, books, and fees for four years, at Georgia’s public colleges and universities. Originally, students at private colleges and universities got a flat $3000 annual grant.   At first, Hope scholarships were subject to limits on family income for  grantees, but that was quickly kicked to the curb as the lottery produced increasingly hundreds of millions. Shortly, no matter how rich you were, a “B” average gave you a ticket to ride the lottery through college in Georgia.

The advertisements promote lottery scholarships for Georgia’s kids, implying they are limited to graduates from a public, private, or home school in Georgia.  But that is not exactly the case.  Miller’s program had an exception or two, and one can only guess the reasons why.  There is no requirement recipients of lottery grants have to graduate from high school in Georgia, or even the country.    Although it is not widely known, they don’t have to be citizens of the United States, either.

Since word got out about HOPE,  school  superintendents and principals all over Georgia get calls every day from parents across the  United States asking “How can my kid get a Hope Scholarship in Georgia.”  That is, those who don’t check it out on the website.

Responding to rumblings about lottery shortfalls in the near future, Calvin Smyre  said  “The Hope Scholarship is not just a program for Georgians, it’s a world-wide program”.  A world-wide scholarship program funded by the Georgia Lottery!  And why not, it’s free money!

But crazy as the creation of a “world wide scholarship program”  by a single state may  be,  it was by no means the only bad consequence of  Miller’s Hope Scholarship program.

It is safe to say that had taxes been levied for a massive scholarship program like Hope, the legislature would not have easily given up its power to the Governor.  Recipients of scholarships would most likely have to be U.S. citizens and graduate here in Georgia.  Nor would the program have been operated so “generously”.  But it’s funded by “free” money. Gambling money is fast money.  Fast money corrupts the government. 

The Georgia Lottery has corrupted state government not only by concentrating  power and distributing funds outstide the appropriation process. The  billions of dollars pouring into HOPE Scholarhips and other  lottery funded educational programs have corrupted Georgia’s  educational system from the bottom to the very top.

See Part 2, Georgia’s Lottery, Part II: Corrupting Education.

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