Boring Games Result in Texas Lotto Drop

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Lottery revenues in Texas have entered a slump, but experts say that the struggling economy is not the cause.

Other states, according to experts, have not had any decrease in lottery sales since the economy entered it’s slump. In fact, according to john Kindt, a gambling critic from the University of Illinois who conducted an examination of lottery trends during the recession of the early 1990s, gambling tends to be unaffected by recessions.

“Instead of buckling down and facing the economic realities, people take chances,” Kindt said.

So what is causing this lottery slump in the Lonestar state? Texas officials fear that revenues dropped more than $100 million in the most recent fiscal year, which amounts to a $49 million blow to public education, because the current crop of games are both boring and unappealing. According to statistics, sales are down 2.7 percent, including a $73 million decrease in Texas scratch-off games, which are usually extremely popular.

Representative Ismael Florews remarks that, “People get bored. How many times can you employ the same games?”

Flores and other officials at the commission complain there is no way to fix the problem of this 16 year old lottery system because Texas law restricts the lottery commission from introducing any new forms of gambling, such as keno, video lottery terminals and instant online games. Such games have become big hits in other states because they give instant results in our instant society.

“We can’t expand, we can’t do anything,” Flores complained, directing his ire at gambling opponents who he insists have blocked a good number of his gambling initiatives in the Legislature.

Texas lottery officials estimate that, if allowed, video lottery terminals at racetracks could bring in an additional $1.4 billion in state revenue over a five-year period. However, critics of gambling don’t seem to care about the numbers. They say the state has no business expanding games that tend to appeal to those least able to afford them.

According to rob Kolner, “It’s a poor, unreliable revenue source for the state, period.” Rob is a lobbyist with the Christian Life Commission of the Baptist General Convention of Texas, a group that opposes gambling as a revenue source.

Texas lottery laws leave the state with bingo, an assortment of scratch-off games, plus a handful of other games, including Lotto Texas, which still sells for $1.

Education officials are not overly worried about the drop in lottery revenue, mostly because schools are not completely or even highly dependent on lottery funds.

According to Texas Education Agency Spokeswoman Debbie Ratcliffe, “the lottery provides us with a billion a year. When they slip below that, other state monies make up the difference.”