In 1984, Oregon voters passed an initiative creating the Oregon Lottery^®. Oregonians wanted the opportunity to play lottery games as well as use the profits from those games to help strengthen Oregon's then struggling economy.

In 1991, the Oregon Legislature, State Police and Attorney General's office wanted to eliminate the 10,000 gaming machines that were operating illegally in Oregon. To accomplish this, the Oregon Legislature directed the Lottery to begin offering video gaming and to oversee and manage this type of gaming. Benefits of the Lottery’s involvement to Oregon include:

• Generating revenue for state programs.


• Ensuring the games run honestly and fairly.


• Ensuring that taxes are paid on income earned from Video Lottery^SM sales.

With video gaming under the Oregon Lottery^®’s direction, beginning in 1992, players could play a variety of poker games on Video Lottery^SM terminals (VLTs) across the state. After being authorized by the Oregon Lottery^® Commission in April 2005, line games were made available in retail locations in May 2005. At that time, Video Lottery^SM retailers could elect to offer both poker and line games at a reduced commission rate, or continue offering just poker games at commission rates established in 2004. As of December 31, 2007, of the over 2,263 Video Lottery^SM retailers statewide, 2,237 offer both poker and line games, while 26 retailers offer poker only on their VLTs.

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