Idaho Boots Powerball

Idaho has decided to end its thirty-year relationship with the Powerball lottery  You can read the news story from my colleague Mateo Walling here. Critics will point out that everyone benefits from the lottery, including Idaho Public Schools. Schools will lose millions of dollars without big money from the Powerball Game.

Despite the millions that the Idaho Lottery donates to Idaho Schools, the state cannot adequately fund education. Maybe it's time for the legislature to take another look at how much money the lottery generates for public schools. Do we need commercials and billboards reminding us to spend money on something that most of us will end up losing money on? Is that a responsible use of state funds?

The Idaho Lottery tells us just how much money goes to fund the schools. Here's their statement from their website: In Fiscal Year 2020 the Idaho Lottery returned a record-setting dividend of $55.5 million to the people of Idaho. Over the course of 30 years, the Idaho Lottery now has returned over $961 million to the people of Idaho. You can click on the link here to find out how much your local school receives from the lottery.

Lottery advocates are already taking to social media complaining about the loss of Powerball. I'm not a fan of gambling. I'd argue that most Idahoans share my opinion that gambling offers no value to their lives. If you look at the vast amounts of Idahoans who play the lottery and just how many winners we have, who would pay money to be a loser in their right mind?

I doubt that anyone would have enough courage to say we don't need a lottery; we need to invest in education, not gamble for schooling.