In the end, Ohio, like several other states who've checked into the possibilities, was scared off by legal obstacles.
The biggest hurdle: a five-year-old federal law that bans interstate telephone sales of lottery tickets. Legal experts assume the law covers Internet sales, too, since access to the Net is most often via telephone lines, and the goal is the same: Uncle Sam wants to prevent state Peter from robbing state Paul.
There are other, more political objections. Internet sales would bring gambling into the home, for instance, and it would make it more difficult to control compulsive gamblers.
As a result, the Ohio commission charged with recommending ways to increase lottery sales did not promote the Internet option. "The political costs of being the first to do it outweighed the revenue benefits," says state Representative Donald Mottley, who chairs the Lottery Profits Review Commission.
Instead, with sales having slipped from $2.3 billion in fiscal 1996 to $2.1 billion in 1999 and profits by $28 million last year, the commission recommended, among other steps, that the legislature allow more and bigger prizes by permitting participation in multi-state lottery games, such as Powerball or the Big Game, and loosening the requirement that at least 30 percent of lottery revenues be profits.
