A joint legislative committee of the Texas legislature recently met to hear from state employees and industry leaders regarding the future of the 23-year old Texas Lottery. Lawmakers want to know why, despite raising a record-breaking .4 billion last year with .2 billion going to education, the lottery funds just three days of public school a year, compared to 10 days in the past.
The Texas House abolished the lottery in April 2013, but later reconsidered the vote and revived the commission and lottery.
The committee will make its recommendations to the full legislature in December, ahead of the January session.
Several speakers said the amount raised by the lottery represents only 6 percent of the state education budget and would have little impact if eliminated. Also opponents said lottery money has not helped the numerous Texas school districts that struggle for adequate state funding every year.
Dawn White, executive director of Christian Assistance Ministries, was among several speakers who said the lottery targets the state’s poor. “You don’t see rich people buying a lot of lottery tickets. For some of our clients that may not have had a good education around money management, they’ve always struggled to have such little dollars that getting that immediate gratification by buying that $1 or $2 lottery ticket can seem like a good idea. When you’re living in such a marginalized existence it can seem exciting and maybe like a real possibility when we know it really, in all actuality, is not,” White said.
Rob Kohler of the Baptist Christian Life Commission added, “The Texas Lottery has operated in the state of Texas for over 20 years. The data shows that is coming from areas that’s high in public assistance.”
State Rep. Joaquin Castro, who will not have a vote if the legislature votes to abolish the lottery, also noted, “The folks that tend to buy the lottery tickets the most are lower income folks. What we have to do is make sure that we set up resources in case there are folks who are literally addicted to playing the lottery in the same way that you might get addicted to playing slot machines or poker or something else.” He noted lottery revenue also is allocated for welfare assistance, but he and other lawmakers believe that money goes toward buying more lottery tickets.
However, lottery proponent Joseph Gruniger, division manager at Murphy’s Oil, noted he was able to give out raises this year to many of the thousands of employees in the company’s 98 area stores thanks to money raised by the lottery. “We take people who are just entering the workforce and we’re giving them a foot in the door allow them to start a career,” Gruniger explained.
