Oregon Revamps Rare Tequila and Bourbon Lottery Months After Liquor Embezzlement Scandal

Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek speaks at the State Library of Oregon in Salem on Jan. 31, 2023. (AP Photo/Claire Rush, File)

The Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission (OLCC) has reinstated its coveted liquor lottery nearly a year after an internal investigation shuttered the program in scandal.

Attracting nearly 29,000 applicants at its peak, the lottery offers Oregonians the chance to pick up rare spirits at retail price. While a bottle of Sazerac Rye 18 costs around $125 through the program, resellers hawk it to the tune of $2,500. Other bottles regularly reach into the tens of thousands on the lucrative resale market.

For a small cadre of government officials, the opportunity for corruption was too much to resist. An investigation released in February 2023 found that Executive Director Steve Marks and five other agency officials used their “knowledge and connections” to divert certain bourbons for personal use. Among the misappropriated spirits was a bottle of Pappy Van Winkle 23 — $300 through the lottery, $52,000 for everyone else.

“After requesting the head of the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission’s resignation, my administration became aware that leaders within this agency, including the director himself, abused their position for personal gain per their own admission in an internal investigation,” wrote Oregon Governor Tina Kotek.

“This behavior is wholly unacceptable. I will not tolerate wrongful violations of our government ethics laws.”

The involved officials have since been stripped of their positions.

Oregon, alongside 17 states including Pennsylvania, Virginia, Ohio and North Carolina, is classified as a “liquor control” zone. Institutionalized after the appeal of prohibition in 1933, governments in these states maintain a monopoly over alcohol sales that has, over time, extended into a monopoly of liquor lotteries.

Spirits collectors looking to get in on the action can apply between March 11 and March 17, with a lottery drawing set for March 19. In addition to rare bourbon selections from Blanton’s, Pappy Van Winkle and Eagle Rare, the revamped lottery will include six bottles of Don Julio Ultima Reserva priced at $499 each.

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