States looking to sell lotteries to private companies.

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Is this hypocritical? Private companies making money off gambling on US soil.....mmmmmmm. Your thoughts appreciated. Article from Chron.com.

Gov. Rick Perry is planning to tell the Legislature he wants to "sell" the state lottery to a private company when he delivers his State of the State speech next Tuesday, aides confirmed Friday.
But spokesman Robert Black is not elaborating on exactly what Perry means by selling the lottery, leaving unanswered questions about whether a sale would involve a lump-sum or annual payment.
The Texas Lottery already is highly privatized. Gtech Corp. runs the Lotto games and Scientific Games runs the scratch-off games.
Lottery critic Suzii Paynter, director of the Christian Life Commission, said lottery sales in Texas and other states have been declining in recent years.
"I cannot resist in pointing out that the Lottery has not always lived up to the promises that Texans expected when they approved it," Paynter said. "So, in that light, I don't blame the governor for wanting to sell it."
Paynter said so much of the lottery is in private control that it is difficult to see how the state would gain much by selling it.
"We're one of the most privatized lotteries in the country," Paynter said. "We'd be losing our annual revenue and trading it for a lump sum."
The lottery transfers about $1 billion a year to the state to help pay for public schools.
The Texas Lottery in fiscal 2006 had $3.8 billion in total sales and paid out $2.3 billion in prizes, said spokesman Bobby Heith.
Most of the remaining money was paid out to lottery retailers and operators.
Several other states are exploring the sale or long-term lease of their lotteries. Illinois is trying to sell its lottery for $10 billion. Indiana is exploring a long-term lease for $1 billion up front and $200 million a year. New Jersey and Michigan also are considering such sales.
If the Texas Lottery is sold to a private company or a consortium, that firm would take over complete lottery operations.
A total sale of the lottery also likely would require a state constitutional amendment. At present, the constitution allows only the state to operate a lottery, though it can contract with companies to run it.
Perry likely could avoid changing the constitution if the lottery is turned over to a private vendor on a long-term lease that involves a large up-front payment.
Such a lease would be similar to the contracting arrangement the Texas Department of Transportation is considering for its Trans-Texas Corridor toll road projects. Those have been controversial for a number of reasons, one of which is a non-competition clause sought by toll road operators
Such a clause in a lottery lease could make it difficult for the state to expand gambling to video lottery terminals at horse and dog tracks or full-scale casino gambling.
But Paynter said a total sale of the lottery to a private company might open the door for casino gambling by Indian tribes in Texas.
Dawn Nettles, who runs a newsletter for lottery players and is a frequent critic of the Texas Lottery, said the sale of the state lottery to a monopoly would be a mistake.
"They see the decline in lottery revenues, and they want to get the money now," she said.
r.g.ratcliffe@chron.com
 

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bump.........any insight from fellow gamblers......otherwise this thread can die.:drink:
 
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Leave it up to the gov't to screw up something that should be nothing short of an absolute cash cow.

Amazing
 

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Michigan would love to sell their lottery and just collect their cut from the indian casinos.
 

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dowhat said:
bump.........any insight from fellow gamblers......otherwise this thread can die.:drink:

Not surprising that states want to sell their lotteries to private companies, who can run it more efficiently and make more money for the state with less effort. Just part of a broader trend toward privitization--New Jersey, for example, is looking to lease the operation of the NJ Turnpike to an outside company...

And of course its hypocritical--the whole existance of the US based casino/horse racing/dog racing/lottery/etc. industry underscores the hypocricy of the tirade against Internet gambling. If the gambling prohibitionists like Frist, Kyl, Brownback, et. al. had a boner against *all* forms of gambling, I wouldn't agree with it but they'd at least be consistent. To suggest that online gambling is a moral danger to American children and families, but that somehow land based US casinos/horse tracks/dog tracks/the lottery/etc. *isn't* just goes to show that its all about da benjamins and controlling the personal behavior of US citizens.

Just think about it--have you *ever* heard of any legitimate political movement to ban lotteries? Here in South Carolina every now and then some Bible thumper will introduce a bill to ban it based on their moral views and it gets voted down faster than legislation to make Islam the state's official religion would. What's funny is that when the state was originally proposing the creation of a lottery there was a fair amount of opposition but once the lottery got implemented and the one-time opponents of it started finding ways to spend the revenues their moral qualms about it quickly disappeared.

What's *really* hypocritical is that if the goal of the anti-gambling types is to protect families and children they should start by banning the lottery--the demographics of the average lottery player is a poor, minority, uneducated, lower income individual. Demographics for poker players--and particularly us sports players--skew toward highly educated, professional, more affluent types. There's an old saying that the lottery is a regressive tax on ignorance and that's basically the truth...
 

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da1prophet said:
Not surprising that states want to sell their lotteries to private companies, who can run it more efficiently and make more money for the state with less effort. Just part of a broader trend toward privitization--New Jersey, for example, is looking to lease the operation of the NJ Turnpike to an outside company...

And of course its hypocritical--the whole existance of the US based casino/horse racing/dog racing/lottery/etc. industry underscores the hypocricy of the tirade against Internet gambling. If the gambling prohibitionists like Frist, Kyl, Brownback, et. al. had a boner against *all* forms of gambling, I wouldn't agree with it but they'd at least be consistent. To suggest that online gambling is a moral danger to American children and families, but that somehow land based US casinos/horse tracks/dog tracks/the lottery/etc. *isn't* just goes to show that its all about da benjamins and controlling the personal behavior of US citizens.

Just think about it--have you *ever* heard of any legitimate political movement to ban lotteries? Here in South Carolina every now and then some Bible thumper will introduce a bill to ban it based on their moral views and it gets voted down faster than legislation to make Islam the state's official religion would. What's funny is that when the state was originally proposing the creation of a lottery there was a fair amount of opposition but once the lottery got implemented and the one-time opponents of it started finding ways to spend the revenues their moral qualms about it quickly disappeared.

What's *really* hypocritical is that if the goal of the anti-gambling types is to protect families and children they should start by banning the lottery--the demographics of the average lottery player is a poor, minority, uneducated, lower income individual. Demographics for poker players--and particularly us sports players--skew toward highly educated, professional, more affluent types. There's an old saying that the lottery is a regressive tax on ignorance and that's basically the truth...

And don't forget drink alcohol at the casinos that the state gets a cut from.
 

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I am all for it if it brings states one step closer to selling off the DMV or the Feds selling off postal service.
 

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Presto said:
I am all for it if it brings states one step closer to selling off the DMV or the Feds selling off postal service.

In theory I'm definitely in favor of privatizing whatever function the local/state/federal government wants to do. In the case of the lottery, however, its just one more thing that underscores our government's hypocritical gambling regulation at every level.
 

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There are several large European based operators that the State might wish to include in its tendering process.

:lolBIG:
 

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Woody0 said:
There are several large European based operators that the State might wish to include in its tendering process.

:lolBIG:

That's different...when people other than the state make money off of gambling its "money laundering"...

:puppy:
 

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Gov't lotteries are a fraud. They claim the money is going to schools to pass the bill then they screw the schools big time and screw the players also.
In Calif. we have the Super Lotto which used to go up around $3 million each time it wasn't hit. The higher it rose the higher the roll over was. ow we've taken on that multi state Mega Millions and the Super Lotto barely goes up two million a week! It's really a joke. Even when it gets high like $50 mill or so, it never goes up as high as it used to! Someone should investigate the whole lottery process! People that win don't complain since they've won a bundle, but they should have won a lot more than they did!
 

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Mitch Daniels in Indiana is trying to "privatize" the Hoosier Lottery. Lump sum payment I believe. He has already sold a toll road to a private Australian company if my memory is correct. He is also trying to make the license branch public too. He is trying to generate cash to get into the black and pretty much the entire state is up for sale...he'd probably sell his mother if the price is right!
 

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I think it's a longshot that any State will do this..... I think Pa listened to the people and are spreading the money out instead of just one Big Prize. There's still a Jackpot with their new game (Mix/Match) but the # of winners over a $1000 is worth it for the players to buy a ticket. What I'm suggesting is for other States whose sales have slowed to spread the Money out....Here's tonights results with payouts ($438,334) minus one thing we never see for whatever reason, The Sales?

<TABLE cellSpacing=2 cellPadding=2 border=0><TBODY><TR bgColor=#f2f3ff><TD>mix & match: 15, 19, 9, 12, 10</TD></TR><TR><TD>0 players matched 5, with 5 in same position, receiving $2,000.00 + $125,000.00 </TD></TR><TR><TD>4 players matched 5, with 3 in same position, receiving $2,000.00 + $100</TD></TR><TR><TD>7 players matched 5, with 2 in same position, receiving $2,000.00 + $4</TD></TR><TR><TD>27 players matched 5, with 1 in same position, receiving $2,000.00 + Free Ticket</TD></TR><TR><TD>23 players matched 5, with 0 in same position, receiving $2,000.00 </TD></TR><TR><TD>30 players matched 4, with 4 in same position, receiving $20.00 + $1000</TD></TR><TR><TD>116 players matched 4, with 3 in same position, receiving $20.00 + $100</TD></TR><TR><TD>553 players matched 4, with 2 in same position, receiving $20.00 + $4</TD></TR><TR><TD>1,311 players matched 4, with 1 in same position, receiving $20.00 + Free Ticket</TD></TR><TR><TD>1,648 players matched 4, with 0 in same position, receiving $20.00 </TD></TR><TR><TD>759 players matched 3, with 3 in same position, receiving $2.00 + $100</TD></TR><TR><TD>4,990 players matched 3, with 2 in same position, receiving $2.00 + $4</TD></TR><TR><TD>16,256 players matched 3, with 1 in same position, receiving $2.00 + Free Ticket</TD></TR><TR><TD>25,090 players matched 3, with 0 in same position, receiving $2.00 </TD></TR><TR><TD>8,999 players matched 2, with 2 in same position, receiving $0.00 + $4</TD></TR><TR><TD>55,403 players matched 2, with 1 in same position, receiving $0.00 + Free Ticket</TD></TR><TR><TD>50,336 players matched 1, with 1 in same position, receiving $0.00 + Free Ticket</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
966 winners of $100 or more.....BTW, 19 balls in this game
 

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stuckinvegas said:
Gov't lotteries are a fraud. They claim the money is going to schools to pass the bill then they screw the schools big time and screw the players also.
In Calif. we have the Super Lotto which used to go up around $3 million each time it wasn't hit. The higher it rose the higher the roll over was. ow we've taken on that multi state Mega Millions and the Super Lotto barely goes up two million a week! It's really a joke. Even when it gets high like $50 mill or so, it never goes up as high as it used to! Someone should investigate the whole lottery process! People that win don't complain since they've won a bundle, but they should have won a lot more than they did!

You are correct, sir. Here in South Carolina the state runs commercials talking about the "billions" the lottery has generated for education and out of the other side of their mouth claims that they can't afford to keep college tuitions down, can't afford to pay teachers more, and so forth. And our schools are still among the worst in the country. Assuming they have generated "billions" for education I don't have a clue where it all goes...
 

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