UPDATED Ohio's controlled hunt lottery program hugely popular, long odds, but enormously fair

If you applied for the first time during the recent Ohio Division of Wildlife’s controlled hunt lottery to seek ducks at Magee Marsh consider yourself lucky, with the odds being one in 18.

Then again, if you were successful in being drawn for the highly coveted Plum Brook firearms deer hunt breath a deep sigh of relief. Your odds of doing do were one in 21.

However, don’t feel too badly about failing to get picked for the Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge firearms deer hunt. In all, 2,912 applications were received for the available paltry 25 slots, placing the odds at one in 116. Put another way, the mathematics of such odds could imply that it will take 116 years before you get drawn for the hunt, or not until the year 2134.

Yes, Ohio’s controlled waterfowl and deer – as well as controlled fishing - random lottery drawing program is that popular.

“It’s not really a scientific way to look at it, but it does help to put the odds into focus,” said Andy Burt, the Wildlife Division’s licensing coordinator.

In virtually all controlled hunts – from the women’s-only to the youth-only to waterfowl to handicapped to adult deer and adult waterfowl – many, many more people apply than are slots available, Burt says.

That aforementioned Magee Marsh waterfowl hunt, for instance, attracted 2,421 applications for only 128 slots. Meanwhile, the Plum Brook deer gun hunt saw 4,636 people check off that selection but aimed for just 217 slots.

Much the same can be said for the Ravenna deer gun hunt where 4,603 people sought to be picked for only 176 slots.

In all, Burt says, 6,634 persons filled out 30,317 applications. Each of those totals were increases over 2017 when 6,280 “customers” completed 25,317 applications Burt said.

Much the same was true for the various youth hunts, Burt said as well. This year, 5,777 youths filled out 11,085 applications. In 2017 those figures were 5,484 and 11,090, respectively, Burt says

Even though the vast majority of people submitted their applications on-line – along with information about their respective credit card to pay for the $3 each hunt non-refundable application fee - the Wildlife Division still accepted paper applications and checks, Burt said.

The reason being, says Burt, is that not everyone is entering the on-ramp to the Information Superhighway.

“We are seeing an increase in paper applications, too,” Burt says. “Most of those paper applications have Burton and Middlefield addresses.”

Translated: These are two key Amish communities in Geauga County where members of that religious affiliation tend to shun modern appliances that include computers and modems.

“And we do see that many applicants tend to apply for hunts close to home,” Burt said, too.

Not to be lost is that the lottery program has undergone a prodigious shift in the way it is conducted. Back in the late 1970s, people completed a paper application and sent in a $10 refundable check. No hunting license was necessary, and it was more common than not for hopeful hunters to game the system, Burt said.

“People would put in applications in the name of their wives, kids and I suspect, their dogs,” Burt said.

And given that the applications were on paper, a physical drawing of them was conducted, challenging Florida’s hanging chad election fiasco for diabolically by-hand complexity.

Complicating matters even more, the state was required to reimburse all unsuccessful applicants their $10, requiring the services of both the Natural Resources Department along with the State Treasurer.

Thus, sometime around 2011 the Wildlife Division’s controlled hunt and fishing lottery program saw the green glowing light of computer screens with applicants (for the most part) began using their laptops, tablets and other such systems to put in a single chance for each desired hunt.

Today the system employs Microsoft software that is programmed to issue permits on a strictly random electronic basis. Other new rules that help prevent abuses require that each applicant include a current Ohio hunting license number along with a $3 non-refundable fee.

“One dollar of that fee is like the writing fee; it goes to the company which actually goes to the vendor which supplied the system,” Burt said. “The other $2 goes into the Wildlife Fund.”

This year the Wildlife Division collected a total of $60,634 from the application fees received from adult hunters, an increase from the $51,478 collected in 2017. Another $22,170 was collected from youth hunters this year verses $21,180 collected from applying youths in 2017, Burt said.

New this year is that several of the successful applicants will find that they’ve been per-assigned a hunting blind or a parking lot, the intent being to speed up getting the hunters to their respective sites.

Enough flexibility exists that should some hunting location be closed or a marsh pothole be dry that the Wildlife Division can move people around, Burt said also.

“We are seeing far fewer complaints now with the new system than we did under the old paper one,” Burt said.

Being looked at down the road for possible electronic lottery inclusion are the seemingly endless special hunts at state nature preserves, scenic rivers, and other locations where prospective hunters still must physically appear for a drawing. Such systems favor local hunters who have the advantage of driving short distances rather than someone coming from far away who may very well return home empty handed.

The issue here, however, says Burt, is that while the Wildlife Division authorizes such hunts it does not either manage them nor pockets the application fees. Those details are the purview of a different agency; including sister Ohio Department of Natural Resources Department divisions, Burt says.

“Those are some of the things that still need to be considered, but, of course, there’s always the need to improve things,” Burt said.

- By Jeffrey L. Frischkorn
JFrischk@Ameritech.net