GAMBLING REVENUE HELPS FUND EDUCATION

Although games of chance are controversial in Missouri, they provide a portion of funding for education that enhances general revenue appropriations of the Missouri General Assembly.

Lawmakers established agencies this decade to govern riverboat casinos, lottery sales and bingo. State law earmarks nearly all state proceeds from gambling for educational programs.

In fiscal 1998 that meant some $273 million went for elementary, secondary and higher education programming, nearly $20 million more than fiscal 1997 allocations.

Casino companies are required to make daily deposits of 20 percent of their adjusted gross receipts to the Missouri Gaming Commission. All but 10 percent of those funds are designated for educational programming, with the remainder going to the host city or county.

The commission also receives $1 from every admission fee collected by the casinos. A portion of that money is used to regulate the industry and for administrative costs.

"We are required by law to place (money from casino gambling) into the Gaming Proceeds for Education Fund," said Harold Bailey of the commission. "The state portion (of casino admission proceeds) goes toward regulating the industry and is capped. Once the cap is reached, the rest goes to capital improvements for state veterans' homes."

The gaming commission also receives proceeds from the manufacture and sale of bingo equipment. A change in state law in 1993 placed a tax on the companies that make and sell the equipment rather than the hosts, said Bailey. The money collected by the state is placed in the Bingo Proceeds for Education Fund to be distributed to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, he said.

Bailey said casino and bingo revenue has increased steadily in recent years. The commission is responsible only for collection of state gambling revenue as allowed by law and has no say in disbursing the money, he said.

"The money that's collected (by the commission) is placed in separate funds and is not part of general revenue," he said. "Once it gets in the bank we don't have anything to do with it."

Susan Goedde of the Missouri Lottery Commission said the same holds true with lottery revenue. Education receives about 30 cents of every dollar spent on Missouri lottery tickets, and the amount has risen steadily over the past five years, she said. Allocations to the state hit a record $147,134,560 for the fiscal year that ends June 30.

Proceeds from the sale of lottery tickets are designated entirely for DESE and the Coordinating Board for Higher Education.

Tante Silberberg of DESE said gambling revenue enhances appropriations made to fund the state's foundation formula, which is used to calculate aid to the 525 public school districts in Missouri. The money is used to fund programs like the Missouri Scholars Academy, Caring Communities and various grants, she said. Also benefiting are one-time budget items, including money set aside in fiscal 1998 for the Cape Girardeau Area Vocational School.

"It's not supplanting any money that's already there," she said. "The General Assembly makes its appropriations, and the gaming revenue is then added to the total for educational programming."