House votes to scratch outdated lottery provision, amend agency’s pension adjustments

The House on Monday passed a bill that would make two technical changes to the Minnesota State Lottery — with one provision cleaning up outdated language and another giving the agency more wiggle room with its finances.

Sponsored by Rep. Regina Barr (R-Inver Grove Heights), HF1418 would further clarify that the lottery can’t award prizes to minors and that the agency doesn’t have to count its employees’ pensions against its legislatively mandated operating budget. Passed 125-0, the bill moves to the Senate where Sen. John Jasinski (R-Faribault) is the sponsor.

The lottery operates solely from gamblers’ purchases and every budget cycle the Legislature determines the agency’s spending cap — $31 million each of the past two biennia. But the lottery must count its pension obligations against that spending cap, which officials argue could have drastic effects in market fluctuations.

WATCH Full video from Monday's House Floor session 

When the Legislature decided in 1994 to repeal a provision of state law allowing the lottery to pay out certain prizes to individuals under 18, even if they weren’t allowed to gamble, it did not eliminate a specific statute governing paying those individuals.

The bill repeals the process on how to pay under-18s and further clarifies the agency can’t award them prizes.