Tennessee State Senator Steve Cohen, author of the bill creating the Tennessee Lottery, says he may consider working on a bill to create a national lottery to pay off the national debt when he heads to Congress.
- Home
- Premium Memberships
- Lottery Results
- Forums
- Predictions
- Lottery Post Videos
- News
- Search Drawings
- Search Lottery Post
- Lottery Systems
- Lottery Charts
- Lottery Wheels
- Worldwide Jackpots
- Quick Picks
- On This Day in History
- Blogs
- Online Games
- Premium Features
- Contact Us
- Whitelist Lottery Post
- Rules
- Lottery Book Store
- Lottery Post Gift Shop
The time is now 6:25 am
You last visited
April 25, 2024, 10:18 pm
All times shown are
Eastern Time (GMT-5:00)
New Tenn. congressman wants national lottery
Nov 14, 2006, 10:54 am (20 comments)
This guy's lost his mind evidentally. I like the idea of it too...could generate some of the largest jackpots in history, but like he said, the state lotteries and Powerball would NEVER go for it.
What a moron.
How stupid does he think americans are ?
How would a national lottery even begin to lower the trillions of dollars of debt ?
We are not talking millions or billions here, we are talking trillions, the only way they will lower the debt is by CUTTING spending, and a certain failed operation in the middle east needs to be addressed (I didn't say ended, I said addressed), and supporting illegal immigrants financially is another, those are both a start.
And stop writing contracts for $40 bolts. I don't know about you folks, but when I go to the hardware store, a bolt is like .08 cents.
Well, I guess that DOES show how stupid we are.....
Frist is from Tennessee, this guy is from Tennessee . . . Interesting. They seem to have messing up the lottery on their minds in that state. Anyone ask if they ma and pa were brother and sister?
Orangeman
This guy has been using 'fuzzy' math, smoke and mirrors, etc, for too long!
Would be interesting to know what game he has in mind. I don't know of a current game that would be attractive to players. Can you imagine a jackpot being divided into couple of hundred parts!!!
On the other hand - folks in Canada have been playing a 6/49 lottery for a long time. The jackpots are won frequently, and multiple winners doesn't seem to be a deterrent. An increase to $2 per ticket didn't have the negative impact some folks predicted. So, maybe it could work in the USA.
Don't get me wrong - I'm not for a national lottery. Would just like to know his plan, if he has one. lol
I probably would be in favor IF Mega Millions and Powerball/MUSL were left intact (the two games remain basically as they are; no merging.) I wonder what type of game(s) he's looking into. Of course, the cash/annuity issue would have to be addressed, as well as payout percentage.
cps10, guesser, and orangeman: You guys just made my day!
Do you think this guy read my survey from a few days ago? Weird.
I am guessing that he is considering a replacement to both PB and MM, which I'm not sure I'd be happy with. As for the cash/annuity issue, that is addressed easily by offering both options. What would be interesting, however, is if the annuity could be paid with US Treasury bonds. Then again, if the idea is to pay down national debt, then the last thing you want to do is have an annuity because that would just be adding more debt.
rdc
That is true, however, they would be getting all that cash, so whats a few U.S. Treasury STRIPS to make the jackpot even less valuable...it's almost like they are creating another social security system with that type of annuity with Treasury Bonds...who's to say your annuity will last 26 years...ha ha ha
I would play another large jackpot game if it was available to me in Oregon.-weshar75
Pay off the national debt....Riiggghhhtttt. It would just be another stash of cash for the politicians to raid to pay for some useless and wasteful government program. That account would be filled with just as many IOUs as the social security fund is.
Anything to pay off the national debt i am in favor of it even if it means picking up trash cans...Where is the love for your country...I am going to propose a similar idea to authorities in my native country...People should be in favor of anything to save their country...And yes, another thing that is going to cut national debt is cutting off spending...A country with no debt is a rich country....I am glad someone mention the idea..Is stuff like this that makes me want to love the lottery...Is time to make the whole country addicted to lottery...But i think for a national lottery to work it will have to be divided in tears and there better be Mass (second tiers winners) i mean massive...A national lottery may not work (50% chance it will work), It will work if there is 5 to 10 second prize winners in each state (provided each second prize pays above 600,000 to 700,000 after taxes and not before taxes)...Is the only way that the national Lottery will grow and lots of people would want to play it....
If you set up a pick6, 1-49 it will not work, even if Mega million and PowerB didn't exist....Just to mention that people are going to be tired of other people winning from a different state. YOu have to have in mind that the U.S has 51 states (or whatever number)...It could also work if they were offering 200 million dollars....
A National Lottery (even if is to pay off the national debt) works well for small (geographically) countries with small population, but a big country with lots of states and large population like the U.S it will be difficult....And it better cost no more than 2 dollars if you are going to offer 200 million dollars or 1 dollar if you are going to let 5 to 10 winners from each state win 600,000 to 700,000 (the second prize) dollars.....This is the only way i think it will work...Anything for the environment or to pay off the debt i am in favor of it...I wish it work...
and if they are going to use the money to pay off the debt they better give the lottery a nicer image and change people's mind about what the lottery is because i feel that people have a negative image about the lottery, as something evil, as gambling, etc...
cohen alone and by himself worked twenty years to bring a lottery to tennessee.if it weren't for him tennessee would not have a lottery.i hate frist as much as the next guy but i'll vouch for cohen.it might be a lame brain idea but he gets a good grade in my book as far as what i've seen he has been a stand up guy.
If they where to do it NO federal tax on winnings would be nice.
I support the fair tax. It would eliminate all taxes on lottery winnings
Learn about the Fair Tax.
Visit http://fairtax.org/
Did you check out Konane's blog? There is all kinds of info on the Fair Tax there.
(Off topic rant alert)
While I'd rather not turn this into a political debate on this forum, I feel I should point that this is actually a very bad proposal. It would simply replace one nightmare with another. Creating a 23% sales tax will be more expensive than what exists today when you actually do the math yourself (and that doesn't count state). Rather than focusing on creating a new tax, the emphasis needs to be on reduction and outright elimination of the current income tax, without creating a new monster to replace it. "Revenue neutral" should not be a goal, as reducing wasteful spending should be concurrent with any tax cut (and we all know how much of that there is). It is possible to do this, it's just that no politician is willing to come up with a reasonable proposal.
What will wind up happening, assuming you got it passed, is they will do a "phase-in, phase-out" and it'll be altered significantly from it's intended purpose, and at some point, the phasing will be stopped, and then you will have BOTH to contend with. And the "prebate" will be the first thing to go (see their site for details). Nice thought, but with the mindset in Washington as it is today, it will not work.
(steps off soapbox)
I think a national lottery would be a good idea. Seems like I am the only one. But nothing like we are used to. If the US was going to have a national lottery we should model it after Spains El Grando (or whatever they call it) Just twice a year drawings with sales for each drawing in the Billions. Our national debt isn't in the trillions....it is about $400-$500 billion. Even though I don't think the money should be used for that.....they can just find the money now in the budget and quit overspending (hopefully that will happen with the new congress). But I don't think a national lottery wouldn't be a bad idea.
B-Rad
Yeah, no way they could generate that kind of cash to reduce the debt without reducing spending.
I think you are thinking of El Gordo, right? A multi-billion dollar cash payout would be incredible...with NO taxes taken out.
I suspect that if this does materialize we could conceivably see a billion dollar first prize. I did say billion here. There are many 100 million dollar top prizes in Mega and several above 200 mil. Heck, why not a billion dollar winner.
F
I agree B-Rad! What a jackpot that would be!