When Oregon ended state-run sports wagering in 2007, the decision wouldn't necessarily have registered with John Van Dyke. At the time, he coached basketball at a small Washington college.
But when a U.S. Supreme Court decision last week raised the prospect of its return here, he perked up.
"This is a huge deal," he said.
Van Dyke is the new athletic director at the Oregon Institute of Technology, one of seven public universities in the state whose athletic departments receive a cut of Oregon Lottery revenues. On his first day on the job in February, he learned how much his athletic department relies on that revenue: After salaries are removed, the $401,824 the Klamath Falls college received last year from the lottery covered 38 percent of the Hustlin' Owls' operating budget.