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Mass. Rep. says lottery funds should go to areas with highest salesNews Story
Lynn is one of the Massachusetts State Lottery's sales hotspots. Yet while Lynn residents spend $85 million a year on tickets and games, the old industrial city gets back just $15 million a year from a Lottery-financed state aid program. State Rep. Steven Walsh (D-Lynn) said it is this imbalance that drove him to file legislation that could revamp the way Lottery proceeds are doled out to cities and towns. Walsh's bill calls for a commission to explore whether the current formula used t
Feb 28, 2007, 8:38 am - Lottery News

Indiana Lottery sell-off advances in state SenateNews Story
Correction: This story originally identified Kentucky as the state selling off its lottery. We apologize for the error. A Senate committee approved legislation yesterday to privatize the Hoosier Lottery after university officials said they needed the money it would generate to attract top researchers and boost life sciences. We believe this bill is a difference maker, said Purdue University President Martin Jischke. Senate Bill 577 passed 7-5 largely along party lines, with Republi
Feb 21, 2007, 8:11 am - Lottery News

Will Maryland sell off its lottery?News Story
With a huge cash crunch on the horizon and soaring demands for school construction, new roads and mass transit, some Maryland lawmakers are talking up the idea of selling one of the state's most valuable assets: the lottery. The idea has grown popular since the governor of Illinois proposed doing the same thing last year. The governors of Indiana and Texas have suggested similar moves, and discussions of the idea are taking place in Michigan and New Jersey. Maryland faces a gap of $1.3 bil
Feb 15, 2007, 12:15 pm - Lottery News

GOP legislators question math in Texas lottery-sale planNews Story
Texas Gov. Rick Perry's proposal to sell off the state lottery to fund cancer research and health insurance was met with skepticism Tuesday from a number of key Republican lawmakers who said the numbers don't add up. I don't know anyone who's supporting it, said Rep. Warren Chisum, R-Pampa, who chairs the powerful House Appropriations Committee. I'd give it only a 10 percent chance of passing. In an e-mail, Sen. Robert Duncan, R-Lubbock, who heads the Senate State Affairs Committee, sa
Feb 9, 2007, 8:15 pm - Lottery News

Tenn. legislator no longer pursuing national lotteryNews Story
Idea had no support from House Democrat leaders U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., said Tuesday that he has abandoned the idea of sponsoring a bill to create a national lottery, saying it had little support from his party leaders, and would take money from the hands of Tennesseans. Cohen suggested just after his November election that he might pursue the idea after his lengthy and ultimately successful effort to get a Tennessee Lottery signed into law. But his first discussions with House Dem
Feb 7, 2007, 12:09 pm - Lottery News

Wyoming lottery bill killed once againNews Story
Casper resident Larry Griffith thought surely this was the year for Wyoming to finally join a multi-state lottery. Griffith has been buying Nebraska lottery tickets for years, and said Wyoming is losing big money to adjacent states. So Griffith was not happy when the state House on Monday voted 31-27 to kill yet another attempt to legalize a lottery in the state. I think it's pathetic, he said. After a half-dozen previous attempts to legalize lottery by the state Legislature, this
Feb 7, 2007, 11:09 am - Lottery News

Lottery foes try to restrict gambling, with little successNews Story
Some New York lawmakers want the state to tell lottery-ticket buyers how slim the odds are of winning, and raise the gambling age from 18 to 21 to try to discourage gambling sprees. But those who oppose change have a ready rejoinder: The state is, in effect, addicted to the billions in revenue that Lottery games generate. The status quo is likely to prevail. If you put in the ad 'The New York Lottery jackpot is now $10 million' and in the next graph say the odds of wining are 1 in 12 m
Jan 31, 2007, 12:51 am - Lottery News

Nationwide, lotteries pay for far more than educationNews Story
Martha Keller is a 78-year-old resident of Altoona, Pa., who frequently takes the bus from her apartment on Walnut Avenue to her doctor's office or the local senior center. Chandni Amin is a 19-year-old nursing student at Georgia State University in Atlanta. Keller and Amin have little in common save for one thing both are benefiting directly from money raised by state lotteries. Lotteries help pay for everything from education to economic development, buses to baseball stadiums. In Penn
Jan 31, 2007, 12:06 am - Lottery News

Michigan latest state to consider selling its lotteryNews Story
'Bad idea' continues its rampage through the USA Michigan has become the latest in a growing list of states to consider selling off its state lottery in a scheme to fix the state's budget problems. The move was being discussed at the Capitol as lawmakers and administrators look for ways to deal with an $800 million budget shortfall this year, and possibly even larger hole in the year ahead. Democrat Gov. Jennifer Granholm is expected to announce plans for dealing with the state's struct
Jan 27, 2007, 9:34 am - Lottery News

Antigua gets favorable WTO gambling ruling over U.S.News Story
The United States has suffered a new setback in a four-year-old legal battle with Antigua and Barbuda over U.S. restrictions on Internet gambling, a U.S. trade official said on Thursday. At issue is an April 2005 World Trade Organization ruling against U.S. prohibitions on online horse race betting. Since then, the U.S. Congress has passed additional legislation to ban certain financial transactions related to gambling over the Internet. Gretchen Hamel, a spokesman for the U.S. Trade Repre
Jan 27, 2007, 8:46 am - Lottery News