by Rod Hughes

Only 10% of the annual earnings from the National Lottery go to charitable works, revealed a Sunday La Nacion investigative report. The report is the second piece of bad news to hit the Junta de Proteccion Social (JPS), the lottery administrative board. Recently, a disgruntled winner sued JPS in the Supreme Court’s Constitutional Chamber and the trial decision could well hamper JPS even more.

The suit was filed by a winner who says he misplaced his ticket and was only able to present himself for his cash prize the day after the claim deadline. JPS says its charity work would be crippled if it had to wait months or even a year before disbursing unclaimed prizes to charity.

The National Lottery, a twice per week drawing, is a social institution here, supporting public hospitals and other charities. Church-goers, who would no more think of going to a casino than they would to a bordello, pick up lottery tickets as casually as they would a candy bar, despite the drawing’s obviously being a game of chance. JPS’s monopoly is protected by law and even church lotteries are technically illegal, although the law is seldom enforced.

The board itself is independent from the central government but is a public institution closely controlled by law to keep corrupt officials’ sticky fingers out of the cookie jar. And the jar is big, indeed, containing tens of millions–dollars, not just colones–annually, from sales of lottery tickets and “scratch-and-win” cards through authorized roving sales persons and fixed posts. Not only hospitals receive JPS funds but the Costa Rican Cancer Institution, the housing bank, the Red Cross and refuges for alcoholics and senior citizens–the list goes on and on.

But the drain on earnings is great. Prizes account for 56%, earnings of the vendors take another 12%. Surprisingly for a non-profit institution, JPS must pay a 12.5% sales tax to government coffers. Printing costs are 12%, high because the tickets must be proof against counterfeiting, especially a problem during the sales of El Gordo (the Fat One), the lucrative Christmas drawings. Another tac eats up 4% and administrative costs are a modest 1%, so not a great deal goes into executives’ pockets.

JPS has submitted a bill to the Legislative Assembly to redistribute the tax on games of chance and eliminate some taxes on lottery earnings but legislation in this country goes at oxcart pace.