Add Missouri as another state considering how to proceed at online lottery sales. Lottery results

Now, what would be different if a person could buy lottery tickets online? Would they be more likely to work these purchases into their routine if they could simply log on to a website and, with a few clicks, come closer to untold riches than if they had to go to a store to purchase them?

Whether the answer is yes or no, on Christmas Eve the Department of Justice reversed itself on the 1961 Federal Wire Act, which made online gambling that crossed state lines illegal and that was meant to prevent offshore sports betting books from taking wagers via wire from bettors within the U.S. — via telephone. Lottery numbers

In a statement published then, the Department of Justice said: “interstate transmissions of wire communications that do not relate to a ‘sporting event or contest’ fall outside of the reach of the Wire Act.”

That means open season for online lottery sales (along with online poker and casinos). And, that means potentially billions more money for Missouri’s public education coffers.

Money from lottery sales started going toward Missouri’s public education system in 1992, when voters passed Amendment 11 earmarking lottery proceeds to solely benefit public education.

The Missouri Lottery reports that, since then, lottery sales have brought more than $4 billion into the state’s public education system.

In 2011, more than $259 million from lottery sales went toward education.

So, is access to lottery tickets online is a good thing or not? Well, as a matter of fact, Americans gamble more than ever and about a quarter of Missourians are likely to gamble.

The National Council on Problem Gambling says between two and three percent of the U.S. population will have a gambling problem in any given year. And even when the term “gambling addict” may give you the image of an unshaven, dishelved man desperately rolling the dice in a garish casino, the question here is, can playing the lottery also be addictive?

It’s hard to find statistics about people who are addicted to playing the lottery, but an article from a New York’s problem gambling agency said, “for gamblers the Lottery is ‘the biggest problem in New York state.’”

The article continued, “the New York Council on Problem Gambling found that 40 percent of calls to its hot line in 2005 were by people with troubles related to lottery games. The next-highest category, casinos, triggered 27.4 percent of calls; no other category was in double figures.”

Also, a Florida gambling report states: “Florida, among other states, is finding that most of its gambling addiction hotline calls are received due to state lottery problems.”

Of course the decision is not easy to make as it is hard to argue with the billions of dollars that benefit the state’s education system. And, with all diversions and behaviors, an people must decide whether rolling the dice–or buying that scratch off ticket–is something they want to do.

But just because we can do something, should we? What do you think?