Voluntary lottery to ease budget crisis

I have a solution for the state budget crisis. It involves gambling, but it's the kind of gambling many of us take part in fairly regularly without going to a casino -- and that's playing the lottery.

I propose a voluntary automatic employee payroll deduction to play the Illinois Lottery Mega Millions the Tuesday and Friday of each week that it's offered. Each employee would be allowed to sign up at work to automatically buy, after taxes, two sets of numbers for each day's drawing. These would have to be quick picks to keep things simple.

The lottery would then send employee-players their numbers for each game via e-mail. In a four-week month, an employee would pay only $16.

Why allow only $4 per week? So citizens participate, but not get carried away. If they want more chances, they can still buy more tickets at a lottery retailer.

I believe many Illinoisans would gladly pay for automatic chances at never having to work another day in their lives. It would gain interest from people across a wide range of income levels who generally aren't drawn to gambling. And for every participant, it would generate $208 more per year.

The logistics don't seem that difficult and it would be a revenue boost the state needs without raising taxes.

Pete Pohl

Wheaton