Kentucky state lottery going online

The US state of Kentucky, which earned itself international notoriety by trying to seize the global domains of 141 online gambling sites several years ago clearly has a different view of internet wagering when it comes to its state lottery revenues.

The local broadcaster WAVE3 reported over the weekend that on Friday the Kentucky Lottery Board approved moves to bring internet lottery to the state.

“Everyone knows the Commonwealth needs revenues. Nobody wants to raise taxes,” Todd Hollenbach, board member and Kentucky’s Treasurer told the station. “What we’re doing is offering more opportunities for entertainment dollars.”

The state is also to introduce keno gambling through land-based halls by 2014, Arch Gleason, Kentucky Lottery President and CEO said, describing Keno as a game similar to Bingo, and noting that players would be able to achieve wins of up to $120,000.

The Keno halls would be located in social settings like restaurants, bars and bowling alleys according to Gleason, who said they would reach out to their current retailers first, then offer it to new businesses. To be effective, Gleason said they’d need about 700 locations in total.

Hollenbach said it would take between six and nine months to get the Keno halls set up, and revealed that would be followed by a move to online gaming, including online scratch-off tickets.

“Over time, we think when they’re both fully developed it could aggregate as much as $85 million on an annual basis, but that takes about ten years,” said Gleason.

In Fiscal Year 2012, the Kentucky Lottery provided $216 million to scholarship programs. Both Gleason and Hollenbach said the money coming from Keno and online games would go to the same allocation.

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