Ohio Lottery
lottery run by the state government of Ohio
The Ohio Lottery is a state lottery run by the Ohio Lottery Commission. Its games consist of scratch tickets; Pick 3, Pick 4, Pick 5 ("numbers games"); Rolling Cash 5, Classic Lotto, Keno, Millionaire for Life, Mega Millions, and Powerball.
The Lottery's current interim director is Michelle Gillcrist, who was appointed by Governor Mike DeWine on April 12, 2023; previous directors include Pat McDonald, Mike Dolan, Tom Hayes, and Dennis Berg.
In April 2023, former Ohio Lottery executive director Pat McDonald denied claims of harassment days before he resigned for medical reasons.
As with most U.S. lotteries, Ohio Lottery players must be 18 or older. All Ohio Lottery drawings are observed by a representative of the Auditor of State, Keith Faber.
History
In 1971, State Senator Ronald M. Mottl began a campaign to begin a lottery in Ohio. In 1973, the creation of the Ohio Lottery Commission was approved by voters; the Lottery began in August 1974 with the game Buckeye 300. Its first online game, The Number (now "Pick 3"), began in 1979.
In July 1983, the Ohio General Assembly began earmarking Lottery profits for education.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Ohio Lottery” is lottery run by the state government of Ohio. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Ohio, Lottery and lottery, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “lottery run by the state government of Ohio” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Chronology, provenance and viewpoint should be read together before a broad social or political interpretation is accepted. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 9, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7080849. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2023, 1971, 1973 and 1974.
Official terminology may obscure informal participation, dissent or communities documented only indirectly. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Compare institutional narratives with records created by participants and affected communities. Dates and formal titles are useful anchors, but not substitutes for context.
- Event chronology
- Institutional context
- Locating named record creators
Contemporary correspondence, government or organizational records, oral histories and cited historical scholarship.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Ohio Lottery”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Ohio Lottery primary sources, Ohio Lottery archive and Ohio research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Ohio Lottery”?
- Who created the surviving record, and for what administrative purpose?
- Which voices are present, absent or mediated by the institution?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Ohio Lottery” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.