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Governor Schwarzenegger wants to double lottery profits

"...Consider these possibilities: How about playing the lottery online? Or sliding your credit card into a machine to buy tickets, instead of waiting in line to fork over cash to a convenience store teller?

"...As legislators take up the governor's lottery plan and its lure of an immediate $15 billion check, they will have to decide where to draw the line.

"...But there's a rub: The governor is depending on investors to front the $15 billion he seeks from the lottery, but the more the Legislature regulates the games, the less money those investors are likely to pay. And the less California gets from the lottery, the more it will have to cut programs or raise taxes.

"...The lottery is hamstrung by restrictions voters put in place when they approved it in 1984. The rules, which Schwarzenegger wants voters to waive in a November ballot initiative, require that 34 percent of revenues be devoted to education, and at least half go toward prizes, with the rest for administration of the lottery.

"...To make the governor's proposal pencil out, the state would have to start selling tickets in places such as laundromats, movie theaters and airports, predicted Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco.

"...[Joan] Borucki, the lottery director, didn't deny that; she said the state would look to install self-serve terminals in popular retail outlets. Outdated terminals would be replaced with ones that take credit cards, and new games with poker and blackjack themes likely would be introduced..."

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