Indiana lawmakers made the right call by letting an online lottery bill go belly up. And if it were up to us, the idea would never again see the light of day.

The case for House Bill 1078 was simple: Online sales would raise revenue without raising taxes. That sounds appealing. It is also misleading.

The Hoosier Lottery’s own numbers show sales have been flat at about $1.7 billion for five years. The bill’s best-case projection promised between $31 million and $94 million in additional annual profit by the third year, according to the Legislative Services Agency.

In a state budget measured in the tens of billions, that is marginal money. More importantly, it is not new money. It would almost certainly come from cannibalizing retail lottery sales. The bill would have required incentives for retailers to promote online sales, but that does not change the basic math: Fewer customers in stores means less potential for on-the-spot sales for retailers.

This is not economic development. It is reshuffling the same dollars across more screens.

The deeper problem is who pays. The lottery is the state’s most regressive revenue source, disproportionately funded by lower-income Hoosiers. For many players, the appeal is not entertainment but hope for a financial windfall. Moving that transaction online turns playing the lottery into a 24-hour habit, available everywhere a phone or computer is available.

Lawmakers have already seen this pattern. Indiana moved early on online sports betting in 2019. Many now say they regret the flood of advertising and the addiction risks that followed. The bill’s sponsor acknowledged that experience hurt the argument for expanding online gambling further.

The question is not whether Indiana can make more money online. It is whether the state should keep inventing new ways to profit from compulsion. In this case, the most responsible decision is restraint.

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