North Dakotans voted to repeal the state’s ban on lotteries in November of 2002, paving the way for the state legislature to establish a lottery in March of 2003. On this date, February, 7th 1890, an investigation was just winding up that would undo plans that would have established a lottery in ND back then. Undercover Pinkerton detective, a Mr. C. Wilson, would go public in just a couple of days, exposing the bribery, corruption and behind-the-scenes wheeling and dealing that was taking place to establish the Louisiana State Lottery in North Dakota. Suffice it to say that the Lottery scheme was revealed and dismantled, and it would be about a hundred years before another serious run at establishing a lottery in the state would take place. North Dakota voters would say “no” to the lottery at the ballot box in 1986, ’88 and ’96, due in a large part to the anti-lottery effort led by former governor, Art Link. But the pro-lottery forces were persistent and when voters finally approved of the idea, the legislature did their part and the first lottery ticket was sold to the modern day leader of the lottery lobby, Minot’s Andy Marogos, on March 25th, 2004.

The ND Lottery now offers several games, Powerball being the most popular. According to the state lottery web sight, 47 cents of every dollar spent on a lottery ticket goes back to players as prize money, the state gets 29 cents, with the rest going to administration and other costs of running the game, including the 2 cents per dollar spent on advertising the lottery. You’ve heard of Lady Luck haven’t you…seen her picture on TV, on posters or in magazine and newspaper ads? Well the lottery is now the law of the land, but there is still opposition to it, and in particular to advertising the lottery. Longtime State Senator John Andrist of Crosby recently introduced legislation to restrict advertising the lottery.

(audio insert-Andrist quote: “I’ve always felt that the lottery, as a fund raising tool for state government was really poor public policy because it, it preys on the poor and the uniformed, and when you start advertising the lottery you start increasing the hope that you’re hanging out there for people that think, ‘Gee, this might be a way to solve all my financial problems’. So my bill would simply say that the state may not advertise the lottery or market it other than to tell people the sites where lottery tickets may be purchased”.)
The lottery advertising bill isn’t getting a lot of attention or overwhelming support. The current lottery is legal, popular and very profitable for the state…a far cry from the shady Louisiana Lottery the “boodlers” or swindlers tried to establish in the state one hundred and seventeen years ago. But Senator Andrist’s bill does indicate that here in North Dakota, one of the last states in the nation to legalize Sunday shopping and Sunday liquor sales, there is still a certain segment of the population that finds the thought of a state-run lottery…troubling.

Merrill Piepkorn

Sources:
“The History of North Dakota_-Elwyn Robinson
www.ndlottery.org
Quote from State Senator John Andrist-January, 2007

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