Kent Lottery Support for Education

By: Pamela Marotta, Kristie Graybill & Xiafan Li

Winner, winner! The Ohio Lottery has been very successful in the city of Kent, Ohio. Multiple stores, gas stations and bars sell all kinds of lottery tickets to all people trying to get lucky and win big. Kwik Stop Marathon gas station in Kent, Ohio is ranked number one for the largest accumulation of lottery sold in the city. The grand total amount of 2014 lottery sales at Kwik Stop was $661,541.50. Manager, Joanne Williamson says that a majority of these lottery sales are from the regular customers that come in daily to play the lottery. The Pub, a popular local bar in Kent is ranked for second highest lottery sales in the city. There sales are $88,806.50 less than Kwik Stop but they still come out on top with a whopping $572,735.00 in lottery sales.

All of these lottery sales mean one thing. A lot of money! The Ohio Lottery was created as a form of taxation to help support Ohio schools. The Ohio Lottery’s slogan is “Take a chance on education. Odds are you’ll have fun.” However, schools are still asking for more funding.

Danielle Frizzi Babb, Deputy Director of the Office of Communication for the Ohio Lottery was asked why schools are still asking for more funding despite the Ohio Lottery’s support for education. Her response was, ” I would not be able to answer any questions related to school districts, and the tax levy’s and things they would choose to ask their tax payers for.”

Lottery players lose an average of 47 cents on the dollar for every ticket they purchase. In Kent, Ohio that total comes to $310,924.00. That is a large amount of money lost by people that play the lottery. When speaking with the Manager at the Kwik Stop gas station we asked her how she feels about supporting education through the middle class addiction of playing the lottery. Williamson says “I think its a good idea, people are gonna spend the money it mind as well go to something good and most people would not willingly donate or pay extra taxes.”

The Ohio Lottery is in fact doing what they were made to do by supporting education. In 2013, the Ohio Lottery funded education with $803,000,000. People are going to keep playing the lottery so why not use that money to support education. Go out there and play the lottery and be a supporter to help funding for education.