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Utah residents might have a shot at the lottery, as state Rep. Kera Birkeland said she has plans to reintroduce legislation for a constitutional amendment to legalize a state lottery.
The proposal should be introduced in 2025, and if approved, voters will decide on the measure in the 2026 general election.
Key takeaways
- Birkeland plans to propose a constitutional amendment to legalize the lottery in Utah.
- If given the green light, the state lottery measure will be ready for voters in 2026.
- Birkeland argues that legalizing the lottery will prevent Utah residents from spending money on gambling in neighboring states.
- A legal state lottery could pave the way for introducing more forms of gambling in Utah, including retail and online casinos.
Utah lottery proposed as solution to cross-border gambling
While many fear how to maintain responsible gambling, Birkeland said her proposal doesn’t encourage more gambling but prevents residents from leaving the state to gamble elsewhere. This will potentially generate new revenue for rural Utah communities.
According to a news post by Fox 13 Salt Lake City, Birkland said:
“There’s still those saying that this is, you know, really going to decay morally our state, and to them, I just hope that this compromise is showing we’re not again changing behaviors; we’re just capturing those same behaviors within our state limits.”
Birkeland said the lottery would be available only in Utah counties sharing borders with states that already operate lotteries — Arizona, New Mexico, Idaho, Colorado and Wyoming.
“What I’m proposing this year is that any county that borders a state with the lottery can open up and have the lottery in that county.
So that you don’t have people in the heart of Salt Lake City or wherever else, just walking down the street to a convenience store, buying a lottery ticket. It still takes a little bit of a work to get there.”
Utah’s gambling expansion faces stiff opposition
When it comes to gambling, Utah is overly restrictive. Its laws prohibit a state lottery, making it one of the only five states without a lottery, and it does not permit sports betting.
The proposition to legalize the lottery in Utah has faced opposition, but Birkeland has remained relentless. She floated the idea last year, but it stalled in the legislature.
House leadership was on board, but the Senate wasn’t, and Gov. Spencer Cox had his reservations. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a major force on Capitol Hill, also played a role in the pushback.
Before this, a bill to legalize skill games introduced in 2021 and a 2019 proposal to permit horse betting both failed to gain traction. Hence, it is hard to say what fate will become of Birkeland’s proposal.
A state lottery could mean millions for Utah
Birkeland says Utah is losing hundreds of millions yearly because people buy lottery tickets in other states. Hence, she wants the Utah lottery to keep that money within the border to reduce taxes.
The bill also proposed to legalize charity raffles. Birkand said early this year: “I’ve ran a number of bills that try to cap property taxes and try to reduce government spending, and none of them ever go anywhere.
And so, for my colleagues, for individuals who are opposed to the lottery, where the revenue would reduce property taxes, I’d say, ‘Then what?’.
