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ARIZONA STATE SENATE
Fifty-Fourth Legislature, First Regular Session
state lottery; keno game
Purpose
Allows the Arizona State Lottery (Lottery) to conduct keno games.
Background
The Lottery was established by a voter initiative in 1980 to administer state-sanctioned games of chance. The Arizona State Lottery Commission (Commission) and the Executive Director of the Commission (Director) oversee the state lottery to produce revenue consonant with the dignity of the state (A.R.S. § 5-554). Current statute also designates how lottery revenue is allocated to funding beneficiaries (A.R.S. § 5-572).
Keno is a game in which a player selects numbers on a card that contains the numbers 1 through 80. The house randomly draws 20 numbers and players win if the numbers they select correspond to the numbers drawn.
The Joint Legislative Budget Committee has forecasted total lottery ticket sales of $951,329,600 for FY 2019. Excluding fund transfers, distributions to the state General Fund are estimated to be $90,333,000 in FY 2019.
Establishing keno games may generate additional revenue for the state General Fund if it increases the overall lottery revenue in FY 2020.
Provisions
1. Establishes the Keno Subaccount (Subaccount) within the State Lottery Fund (Fund) consisting of Arizona's share of revenue from keno games.
2. Requires the Director of the Commission to:
a) administer the Subaccount;
b) deposit Arizona's share of revenues from keno games into the Subaccount; and
c) transfer monies in the Subaccount on a quarterly basis to the Arizona Treasurer for deposit in the state General Fund.
3. Adds keno games to the definition of lottery and state lottery.
4. Allows the Director to adopt rules for the licensing of agents to sell keno game tickets or shares.
5. Specifies that monies in the Subaccount are not included in lottery beneficiary funding allocations.
6. Eliminates restrictions on monitor games that produce or display outcomes or results more than once per hour.
7. Makes technical and conforming changes.
8. Contains a legislative intent clause.
9. Becomes effective on the general effective date.
Prepared by Senate Research
February 19, 2019
MG/AA/gs