A bill proposed in the current Utah legislative session would create a ballot measure to amend the state’s constitution to allow a state-run lottery system.  Because lotteries are illegal under the state constitution, the legislation would require the Lt. Governor to put the issue on the ballot for a statewide vote to amend the existing constitution to allow for it.

Kira Birkeland, the bill’s sponsor, presented the claim that residents of the state spend over $200 million annually on lottery tickets in other states.  The creation of the lottery would potentially keep those funds inside Utah, and according to Birkeland, be used to reduce property taxes for residents.

Clearly, Idaho would be affected in a significant way by changes to the lottery ban in Utah.  Oneida County received just over $700,000 in lottery dividends in 2022.  The funds were used in the county for roof and building repairs, according to reporting from the Lottery Commmission.  The state lottery reported its largest year in sales in 2023, topping $422 million.  Of that, the state of Idaho received $52,250,00 from the Lottery Commission toward public education, and $31,750 toward the permanent building fund.

Although the exact percentage of the claimed $200 million of Utah lottery purchases made in Idaho is not known, our state is almost certainly one of the major destinations for those purchasers, with northern Utah’s population dwarfing the rest of the state’s, and Idaho’s border towns experiencing steady lottery sales to Utahns throughout the year, and massive sales during high jackpots in the multi-state and local lottery cycles.  The $2.04 billion dollar jackpot for Powerball was set in 2022, and the $1.62 billion dollar Mega Millions jackpot was the second largest in its history.  

Anecdotally, cashiers at the KJ’s in Malad City said that during peak lottery rushes, the vast majority of licenses they checked for lottery sales were from Utah, and the packed parking lots attested to the veracity of the claim by a quick scan of license plates.  

While the parent companies of Chevron, Maverik, KJ’s, and other local lottery vendors will see increased profitability in their Utah facilities, the decreased traffic to southern Idaho would be an unavoidable consequence of the amendment.

Utah’s idiosyncrasies with regard to “blue laws” have undergone changes in the past, lest anyone think that a new Utah lottery is out of the question.  As a result of the Winter Olympics (at least in part) in 2002, Utah’s liquor laws have been revised to more closely resemble (although still conservatively) most other states.  A seven foot barrier (often called a “Zion curtain”) separating drink mixing from the sight of patrons is no longer required.  Neither is “friendship club” membership to enter a bar.  Beer is no longer limited to 3.2% ABV levels in grocery stores.  And so on. 

A ballot measure like the one that might open the lottery led to the legalization of medical marijuana in 2018, leaving Idaho as the lone western state with no allowance for any form of the substance on its books.  “Adult bookstores” (which rarely sell many books) and dance clubs are also more prevalent and less restrictive in Utah than in Idaho.

All of which is to say that there’s a better than decent chance of a lottery system making its way through as a result of Utah voters, who have overwhelmingly supported the idea of amending the state constitution to allow for a lottery in polls conducted over the last ten years.