Posted on 08/08/2010 7:11:38 AM PDT by mylife
Lottery ticket sales slipping Officials: Lagging sales won't affect school fund
Updated: Saturday, 07 Aug 2010, 9:12 PM CDT Published : Saturday, 07 Aug 2010, 9:11 PM CDT
AUSTIN, TX (KXAN) - Lotto Texas ticket sales are slipping. Sales have fallen short of covering the last two dozen jackpots.
Lottery officials say the latest jackpot of $21 million at the end of July was $1.2-million more than ticket sales to cover it.
That forced Texas Lottery Commission officials to dip into a state lottery account to make up the difference. But they insist that won't impact the school fund that benefits from lottery sales.
We used to buy lottery tickets fairly often and won 3 numbers regularly and 4 numbers sometimes which left us with the hope we might hit all the numbers someday. Then they added extra numbers and we never won anything. After a while we quit playing.
Of course it won’t affect the school fund. It never went into the school fund.
I would rather give my money to a casino than to a state lottery. At least I get something from the casinos (free beverages, food, rooms, service) — from the state — nothing.
I have to laugh, in Ca they decided to run a lottery for the schools and the result was they shut schools.
No, the money never goes to the schools.
I remember all the talk about the school fund getting money from the lottery but then I heard it didn’t happen. I am pretty much in the dark about whether it did or didn’t.
Exactly.
Yes, they added numbers *it adds to the fun!*
Your chances of winning go down at an exponential rate LoL.
Even a dolt can figure that out.
Or maybe people in Texas are just wising up. Like Dave Ramsey says, lotteries are are tax on the poor and those who can’t do math.
LOL! Did they actually say “it adds to the fun”?
It think Texas could be successful running those. Themes like Texas Hold 'em, BBQ Buffets...Entertainment like the Derailers
Hell I'd do that just for entertainment
Dave Ramsey Is a hoot
Yes! They actually made that a theme LoL
Those promoting government lotteries knew it would simply drain money from those people least able to afford it;the promoters care only about getting more tax money to fund their pet social experiments and relatives' state contracts.
Isn't it funny how the numbers racket was such a bad thing UNTIL the government got into the game?
Never willingly give government a penny more than you must.
I agree.
Your are very right about the disposable income thing. Anyone in retail can tell you the net effect of the government sucking up all of the capital.
Good grief! We are not gamblers but Mr Ditter had fun with the lottery. We go to Las Vegas every year for 1 or 2 weeks for a specific event. My husband will play the slots for $100 and when that is gone (which it ALWAYS is soon) he is finished. I could stay there a year and never bet a dime. Just not a fun activity for me, giving money to sleasy people with getting nothing in return.
My experiences are the same as yours with respect to the lotto. We also used to occasionally by a scratch off but for the last five years or so, those have stopped paying off too. I’d just as soon save my money for the occasional trip to a casino now.
The lottery has always been a scam.
The lottery is like another tax; in this case people throw their money at it as fast as they can.
Lottery equals gambling equals crooks.
That sounds about right.
Yep
Thanks, had to look up GMTA.
Kinda where we're at with welfare system that isn't going to have enough wage earners to fund the free-riders.
Thats the way I do it.
I pickout an amount and call it entertainment.
Buying lotto tickets at the 7/11 aint entertainment.
So many times I have gone into a service station/convenience store to pay for my gas and see someone there laying out $20, $30, sometimes more on lottery tickets. What stupid, stupid people.
Maybe statistical probability ought to be taught in high school.
50 bucks a whack is what I see.
...and those that do don’t want to pay the stupid people tax.
That's probably one factor. But, I suspect it's really just competition.
The Texas Lottery now sells tickets for both Mega Millions and Powerball. Those jackpots grow to significant amounts every few weeks.
Although the odds of winning those multi-state jackpots are much smaller, I think most people simply see: "it's the bigger jackpot" and buy those tickets instead.
Or they are beginning to understand math.
E=people who spend Every week.
P=people who spend Part time...once or twice a month averaged.
N=people who will Never spend a dime on the lottery.
Adding new games & drawings will not increase the X dollars spent, just shifts money spent to various games.
That is what happened to Lotto Texas when Mega Millions & Texas Powerball were added. The dollars (X) spent on the original game are now divided between three. The commission will not be able to get the N people to spend and the P people will only spend on which ever drawing approaches the salary of a Pro Ball Player.
“We used to buy lottery tickets fairly often and won 3 numbers regularly and 4 numbers sometimes which left us with the hope we might hit all the numbers someday. Then they added extra numbers and we never won anything. After a while we quit playing.”
And therein lies the proof that if you tax something you get less of it.
In the case of lotteries, it is a “stupidity tax”.
Casinos in TX would stop our $$$ from going to La.
And Oklahoma
I'm only familiar with La. casinos... the parking lots are 95% cars from TX...as far away as Laredo...and buses from San Antonio.
I've been told the gambling interests in La. spend big bucks buying "no" votes for TX to pass gambling.
Yes, every time they made it harder to win, the ticket sales dropped. It may have been so that they could join in the multistate games to export Texas money.
You know they do.
And the price of admission is nada. ☺
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