Friday, September 3, 2010

The state's founders probably wouldn't have approved, but Kansas will use a new lottery game to celebrate the state's 150th birthday.

The Kansas Lottery scheduled a news conference Friday to launch the new game. Lt. Gov. Troy Findley planned to participate.

Kansas was admitted to the union on Jan. 29, 1861, becoming a new free state just weeks ahead of the Civil War.

Kansas was admitted under a state constitution that said lotteries and the sale of lottery tickets were "forever prohibited."

"Forever" ran out in 1986, when Kansas voters approved an amendment authorizing a state-owned lottery.