Arizona Lottery targets trapped audience at MVD offices
Alia Beard Rau , The Republic | azcentral.com
There’s nothing like a captive audience. And what could be more captive than the crowd trapped every weekday at the Motor Vehicle Division office waiting for a driver’s license?
Apparently the Arizona Lottery agrees. It has announced a three-month pilot program where it will install lottery vending machines at one MVD office in Scottsdale and one in Glendale.
Anything’s gotta be more fun and exciting than watching those red numbers slowly tick upward.
The MVD will earn a 6.5 percent commission on each location’s lottery ticket sales, the same amount a traditional retailer earns.
If the program is a financial success, it will consider rolling them out at other locations.
And if it is a success, the MVD won’t be the only winner. Arizona Lottery officials announced they transferred $206 million in profits to beneficiaries last fiscal year, the largest of which is the state’s general fund. It got $115 million last year, up from $103 million the year before.
Oh, the Legislature didn’t tell you it got a raise? Wonder why.
The Legislature over the decades has increasingly directed lottery revenue into the general fund, where it’s then impossible to track. It might have gone to schools and public-welfare programs as lawmakers promised, or it might have gone to private prisons and lawmaker pensions.
Other beneficiaries include local transportation projects, the Game and Fish Department Heritage Fund, teen-pregnancy prevention, food assistance for children and mothers, the Court Appointed Special Advocates program for foster children, homeless shelters and a program to help law-enforcement agencies fight internet crimes against children.
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