The California Lottery is today a well-established institution, seemingly accepted throughout the state, with millions of customers each week paying money to play a variety of games offering potential prizes up to several million dollars. The passage and implementation of the lottery in California can be analyzed according to policy formation with reference to the stakeholders involved and the arguments offered on both sides of the issue. The issue will be analyzes according to Process and Rationalism.
California is not the only state to institute a state lottery, and the fact that California has done so is in part a response to a perception of success in other states. Yet, this is also an issue that has raised serious questions regarding the feasibility of using a lottery to raise revenues, the morality of using this particular method, and the social consequences of such a policy. Beck et al. (1985) cite concerns such as possible erosion of the work ethic, abetting "undesirable elements," misleading of players over possible winnings and odds, the addiction to these revenues on the part of state officials, and the fear that lotteries constitute a regressive tax on those who can least afford to pay (p. 16). The California State Lottery was instituted following the election of November, 1984 and the passage of Proposition 37, with the start-up date being March 21, 1985. With passage, thousands of retailers had to be licensed to sell lottery tickets, a process that had to be undertaken by a state administration that had opposed the measure (Jacobs, 1984: p. A28).
The social environment at the time of the passage of Proposition 37 included an awareness of other states with a lottery system and an awareness of how successful these had been. Problems raised with reference to a possible California lottery could thus be countered by proponents by reference to the experience in other states. The proposals for a state lottery ha...