Monday, February 26, 2007

Texas defends its moral right to sell worthless tickets

Like lottery operators throughout the world, the Texas Lottery Commission continues to sell instant-win scratch-off tickets even when virutally all the prizes have been claimed. The lottery says its legal position is covered by a one-line disclaimer on the back of the ticket. But Texans are questioning the lottery's moral position on a practice that is increasingly seen as unfair and deceptive.

A player in Corpus Christi sued over the practice three years ago, the Houston Chronicle reports. Since that case settled (out of court) the lottery and its primary contractor are now making some information public about what kind of prize money is still available in each game. But the information available at retail outlets is often out of date.

Scratch tickets are the Texas Lottery's cash cow, generating $2.8 billion in sales last year and accounting for nearly 76 percent of its ticket sales.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home