In order for the Kansas Lottery to exist, every few years the Legislature has to renew its operations.

Kansas Lottery Executive Director Ed Van Petten said Monday that’s costing the state a lot of money, and he would like to see that so-called “sunset” provision repealed.

“We’ll ask that the sunset be eliminated or extended 10 years,” Van Petten told the House-Senate Committee on Information Technology.

If the Legislature fails next year to renew the lottery during the sunset review, the state will stop selling scratch-off tickets June 30, 2007, and online sales on Jan. 1, 2008.

“We have to fix it next year or else,” state Rep. Nile Dillmore, D-Wichita, said.

The Kansas Lottery just had a record year with sales of $236.3 million for the fiscal year that ended June 30, which was a 14.3 percent increase over the previous year.

Renewing the lottery seems a safe bet at this point, but Van Petten said having that sunset provision on the lottery costs the state in its ability to negotiate long-term vendor contracts.

But Glenn Thompson, executive director of the anti-gambling group Stand Up for Kansas, said he would oppose repealing the sunset provision on the Kansas Lottery.

“The Legislature needs to review the performance of the lottery and the impact on the citizens at the time it sunsets,” Thompson said.

Van Petten argued that the Legislature can review the lottery at any time.

But Thompson said having a specific sunset review and deadline “increases emphasis and requires the Legislature to review it before they renew it.”

The Kansas Lottery was established in 1987, and the last sunset review of its operations was in 2002.