SALEM - The Oregon Lottery Commission voted Wednesday to reduce by about 10 percent the state's payouts to bars and taverns with video poker machines. Some critics had urged a larger reduction.

The new contract, aimed at blunting criticism that the state has been overly generous with video poker retailers, is estimated to bring in an extra $111 million for the state over six years.

In adopting the contract, the commission revised a plan that Lottery Director Brenda Rocklin had proposed a day earlier that would have yielded $124 million more for the state in the next six years.

The Oregon Restaurant Association, which represents one-third of the retailers with video poker machines, had urged the commission to change Rocklin's proposal to lessen the cuts for middle-level retailers.

Secretary of State Bill Bradbury later issued a statement accusing the lottery panel of caving in to the restaurant group, which contributed more than $320,000 to political candidates in the 2002 election.

"It's a tragedy when the largest special interest group in Oregon has more sway with the Lottery Commission than the school kids of Oregon," Bradbury said.

Bradbury, who's been an advocate of smaller retailer payouts, was referring to the fact that most of the state's lottery proceeds go to fund public schools.

Rocklin wasn't available late Wednesday to respond to Bradbury's comments, a lottery spokeswoman said.

However, immediately after the commission vote Rocklin called the new six-year contract a "fair deal for the state and for the retailers."

"It is really a balancing act between maximizing lottery revenue for the state and still giving a reasonable rate of return to the retailers," Rocklin said in an interview.

The commission's 3-1 vote for the new contract will trim the average poker commission rate from 32 percent to 28.8 percent of net sales for the 2,000 establishments that offer the games.

Net sales means money spent to play video poker machines minus prizes paid out. The average bar with video poker got a commission payment of about $75,000 in the last fiscal year.

The lone lottery commissioner to vote against the new contract was Richard Soloman.

"I think this contract is excessively generous to the lottery retailers," the Portland accountant said.

The revised commission rates apply to new six-year contracts replacing ones that expire June 26.

The state makes about $350 million a year from the Lottery, with 80 percent of that from video poker. About two-thirds of the proceeds go to education, with the rest allocated to parks, salmon restoration and other programs.

The Oregon Restaurant Association has battled any cut in commissions. The group claimed reduced payments could lower lottery sales because some bar owners would reduce hours or even quit offering the games.

Association president Mike McCallum said many retailers feel like they're being punished for making the lottery a financial success for the state.

"The retailers have outperformed all projections. Why should they be forced to take a 10 percent cut?" McCallum said.

Steve Novick, a leading lottery critic, scoffed at the notion that some retailers might get rid of the video games as a result of the new contract. He also said the state payouts aren't supposed to be so large that they subsidize a business's other operations.

"Oregonians voted in 1984 to authorize the lottery to support economic development," Novick said. "I don't remember anything in the ballot measure about the state subsidizing taverns."