Why don the Trust Fund expenditures occur in the same places where the lottery money is generated?
Many people ask this question with an assumption that money spent on the lottery represents some form of investment by the players who then have a direct standing in determining how and where the investment is handled and revenues distributed. However, the lottery is not an investment enterprise, but a recreational, revenue generating entity operated by state government. The winning players, as a group, receive back approximately 60 cents on all of the dollars played. The Trust Fund is intended as a device to accumulate capital, invest capital, and spend earnings on projects of highest priority – as determined by a competitive, multi-step process – to protect and enhance Minnesota’s environment and natural resources, not a mechanism to pay people back in projects for dollars spent on the lottery.
