Pennsylvania voters overwhelmingly think privatizing management of the state lottery is a bad idea with some saying they'll no longer play if that happens, according to a new Franklin & Marshall poll released Tuesday.
The poll also found widespread support for legalizing marijuana use for medicinal purposes and majority support for legalizing gay and lesbian marriage.
Fewer than one in five voters (18 percent) said they either strongly or somewhat favor Gov. Tom Corbett's plan to hand off management of the lottery to a private company. Almost two-thirds (64 percent) either somewhat or strongly oppose privatization.
Almost one in five (19 percent) said they would play less frequently, one in a hundred (1 percent) said they would play more and three quarters (75 percent) said they would play about as often as they do. The vast majority (84 percent) of voters said they favor requiring state General Assembly passage of the privatization of a government function.
"You know what's going on there, in my humble opinion? I think we have thought of this lottery as ours," said G. Terry Madonna, Ph.D., director of the F&M poll. "Pennsylvania Lottery going to Pennsylvania citizens for Pennsylvania needs. And all of a sudden we're turning it over, the management, to a British company. ... I think that has raised real concerns to people."
The poll surveyed 622 registered voters between Jan. 29 and Sunday and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.9 percentage points.
Corbett wants to hire Camelot Global Services PA LLC to generate more money for the lottery because of the expected growth in use of the senior citizen programs the lottery supports. He did not plan to ask for the General Assembly's approval of the deal.
Speaking to reporters Wednesday after an appearance at the Osterhout Free Library in Wilkes-Barre, Corbett shrugged off the poll results, saying maybe his administration hasn't done enough to explain privatization's benefits.
Corbett said lottery tickets are printed, sold and advertised by private companies.
"We're bringing in another (private) layer," he said. "And the important thing is so that as we see the (senior citizen) population grow - in the next 17 years one in four Pennsylvanians will be 60 or older - we're going to have money at that level," he said. "We weren't growing, consistently, anywhere near what we needed to grow to keep up. If we don't keep up at the lottery, then we've got to take it out of the budget side."
The lottery has provided $22 billion in revenue for senior citizen property tax and rent rebates, free bus rides, prescription drugs and long-term living services. Camelot has submitted a bid to manage the lottery for 20 years and promised to produce $34 billion in profits.
In other results, the poll found:
- More than half of Pennsylvanians (55 percent) oppose legalization of marijuana with only more than a third (36 percent) in favor of legalization. The numbers shift dramatically when the question focuses on medicinal use of marijuana with more than three quarters (51 percent strongly, 31 percent somewhat) favoring allowing adults to use marijuana if a doctor recommends it.
- A majority of Pennsylvanians (53 percent) at least somewhat in favor of selling the state's liquor stores to private companies and about a third (34 percent) at least somewhat opposed.
- More than half (52 percent - 36 percent strongly, 16 percent somewhat) of Pennsylvanians favor allowing gays and lesbians to legally marry. More than four in 10 (41 percent - 34 percent strongly, 7 percent somewhat) oppose gay marriage.
