State Lottery

Gov. Pete Wilson’s appointment of Sharon Sharp (Part A, Sept. 28) after firing Chon Gutierrez as director of the California Lottery poses the following question: Who says that the lottery must make higher profits--or, indeed, any profit at all? When it does, money flows primarily out of the pockets of poor people and into a pool which sustains a bureaucracy, enriches a ticket-printing company and encourages school districts to become foolishly dependent on continued sales. Decreasing lottery profits indicate only that the public is no longer willing to make a sucker bet. Ironically, we may have our schools to thank for that.

Although we derive tax revenues from cigarette and alcohol sales, there is no requirement that the people who regulate alcohol and tobacco sales also run ads or otherwise encourage sales to increase tax revenues. The same should be true for the lottery director. His--and now her--only mandate should be to run an honest, low-cost agency.

Increased tickets sales should be irrelevant to the job description.

EDWIN F. LOWRY, Sacramento