First, Gov. Rod Blagojevich wanted to privatize the lottery to inject more money into education.

Now, he wants to use a lottery sale/lease to bail the state out of its pension debt.

But, in the end, it doesn't really matter who gets the proceeds of Blagojevich's proposed sale or lease of the Illinois Lottery.

The problem isn't where the money would go.

The problem is the proposal itself.

The state would be betting on a questionable sale price and questionable return on investment while giving up control of the lottery and its proceeds.

We don't like the odds.

The governor says the state can get $10 billion by leasing the lottery for up to 75 years.

That figure is apparently based on an estimate by the investment consultant GoldmanSachs which "ran the numbers" last year when Blagojevich first proposed gambling on a lease of the lottery.

But when lawmakers asked to see the details on how that figure was reached last May, the governor's office said there was no "formal" report to share and also said revealing too many details would put the state at a disadvantage when the time came to make the deal.

Lawmakers and taxpapers are certainly at a disadvantage when asked to accept such a deal without knowing the details.

But even if we accept the accuracy of the $10 billion figure, the idea comes with too many questions and potential pitfalls.

How would the state replace the more than $600 million in annual revenue that now goes to the schools?

OK, that was a trick question.

Yes, the lottery money goes to education, but that offsets an equal amount of money from the General Revenue Fund - which means without the lottery, that $600 million would have to come from the already heavily burdened General Revenue Fund.

Meanwhile, specific lottery games have raised more than $2.6 million for the Ticket for the Cure Fund for breast cancer awareness programs and $1.6 million for the Veterans Assistance Fund to support programs for Illinois Military Veterans. That option most likely would be lost with a lottery deal.

If we're lucky, this idea will go nowhere, like the governor's proposal to lease, sell or mortgage the state's Thompson Center in Chicago.