Senate panels look into privatizing Texas Lottery

Comment #3

Drivedabizness — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 20:15:40 GMT

Bobby:

Are you sure about the payout number? Its been a while since I was really engaged with TX so I'm perfectly willing to take your word for the details.

When online sales were stronger, they could run (at least some of) their instants at 70+% (but I think only the higher priced tickets had that level of payout). They tried to get their instants to average in the 60's to keep the oeverall payout at 57%. The TX Legislature made/makes them pay $1 million in fines against their a... [ More ]

Comment #2

guesser — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 06:08:22 GMT

Somebody needs to welcome Texas to the club - lottery sales are down EVERYWHERE.

'It's the economy, stupid'.

Personally, I think they (Powerball) need MORE winners in the 40-75 million dollar range, and NOT push the odds up so nobody wins except once every 3-4 months - when it gets to 275 million-plus.

We don't need a 400+ million dollar winner, we need lots of 50 million dollar winners.

Comment #1

bobby623 — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 15:09:38 GMT

Unfortunately, the Texas lottery is being run like a Las Vegas casino. The folks in charge don't seem to know that there is a difference.

Their plan is to make the games harder to win and lower prizes, just like the casinos do.

Texas once had a scratch ticket payout in the 70+ percent range. It's now down to the low 60s. They have forgotten that when the prize percentage was reduce several years, ticket sales went into the toilet. It's happening again. True, the poor will continue to spend... [ More ]

Senate panels look into privatizing Texas Lottery

Lottery Post — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 04:41:41 GMT

As state revenue from the Texas Lottery continues to decline, two Senate committees on Wednesday began searching for ways to boost the state's take from the games of chance including the possible privatization of the entire lottery operation.

Senators indicated they are willing to look at a variety of options to get the revenue flow back on an upward track after recent declines - including a drop to about $975 million this fiscal year after several straight years of totals over $1 billion - a... [ More ]