California Lottery to Cut 250 Jobs in Bid to Boost Prizes

The state lottery, long criticized as inefficient, decided Friday to slash its work force by nearly a third in an overhaul intended to give more money to players and schools.

Under the reorganization plan, about 250 jobs will be lost statewide over the next eight months.

Lottery Director William Popejoy, appointed five months ago as a trouble-shooter for Gov. Pete Wilson’s administration, presented the plan to the governor’s policy-setting Lottery Commission, whose five members unanimously approved it after brief discussion.

Commissioners, who had been briefed individually on the plan, joined Popejoy in lamenting the need for layoffs--which labor union representatives criticized--but agreed that the cutbacks were necessary.

Popejoy characterized the layoffs as the most painful and saddest part of the overhaul, intended in part to reduce redundancy.

“I want to get it behind us and get on with a different type of lottery,” he said.

Legislators, the state auditor, the state controller and the lottery’s primary contractor, GTECH, have criticized the lottery’s efficiency, often in comparison to other states’ lotteries.

California’s lottery has twice the work force of New York, but less than half the sales. The California Lottery expects to log $2.25 billion in 1997-98 sales, nearly restoring it to the status it enjoyed before years of lackluster public participation.

The lottery plans to reduce the number of workers from 853 to 603 by July 1, with the largest block of cuts--nearly 100 jobs--in the sales division.

The Lottery Commission in June approved lowering administrative spending from 16% to 14.5% of total revenue. The commission’s intention was to use the 1.5% in savings to increase the payouts for scratch-off ticket winners by 10%.

Increased prizes lead to brisker sales and therefore more revenue for schools, lottery officials say.