As the legislative session lurches to an end, competing forces are working to abolish the lottery, while others hustle to save it.
Those working to expose and end the corruption-plagued institution are ascendant and operating in plain view. Conversely, their counterparts, hoping to preserve the institution for vendor interests, are maneuvering in the shadows.
The moral, economic, and good governance imperatives exist to end the lottery immediately.
Corruption reigns at the commission. The funding it provides to the state is a pittance compared to what special interests harvest. It’s a piñata for folks like the Jones family to whack for cash, and the cherry on top: lawmakers say it’s being used to launder money.
Over the weekend, U.S. Rep. Chip Roy (R–Austin) called for the lottery to be abolished. He joins a growing number of lawmakers in both the House and the Senate, who have warmed to the idea of abolishment.
And yet, there are lackeys working overtime in the dark to drag the lottery’s charred corpse out of the fire set by the reportedly missing former executive director, Gary Grief, with the aid of his direct reports: Ryan Mindell, Bob Biard, and Nelda Treviño; the latter two remain employed at TLC.
Advocates for the agency and its tainted product have two talking points at their disposal.
The first is the trivial revenue the lottery generates for the state. That figure, $2 billion annually, is a rounding error compared to the overall budget, and pretending it will disappear if the lottery is abolished is pure fiction.
It is more likely than not that money typically spent on the lottery would re-materialize in tax revenue for another, non-lottery expenditure.
Second, a hypothetical voter backlash is linked to the abolition of the lottery. The folks making this argument haven’t bothered to check who plays the lottery and which party controls the state, or they’d realize it isn’t a compelling argument.
The majority of lottery play is taking place in the lower economic rungs of Democrat strongholds. Based on the data, these aren’t voters, and even if they do vote, they don’t hold the keys to the electoral success of the party that is ostensibly in charge in Austin.
Nobody in the majority party will suffer electorally by ending the lottery, and that’s why those whispering the claim in the granite-encased echo chamber called the Capitol aren’t making the claim in public, where they would be derided.
If the electoral threats aren’t voter-derived, but veiled threats about bankrolled challengers, see the 2024 primary election results for a recent reference point on the success of gambling interests in winning well-funded fights.
At this point in the session, lawmakers have a full menu of options regarding the disposition of the lottery, and almost all of the available paths for the Texas Lottery and the commission that oversees it are bad from the agency’s standpoint.
Lawmakers could abolish the lottery altogether or impose significant restrictions and subject it to expedited or rolling sunset review.
One lightning rod in the Texas House, Brian Harrison (R-Midlothian), pointed out that the lottery is set to expire this year and that lawmakers should let it expire.
Recently, the House budget zeroed out funds for the embattled lottery, and sunset bills that would extend the agency are stalled. Budget negotiators would have to refund the agency or allocate funding to a separate government agency that could hypothetically oversee the lottery.
State Sen. Bob Hall (R–Edgewood) has authored legislation, Senate Bill 3070, that would abolish the Texas Lottery Commission and move the lottery to the Texas Commission of Licensing and Regulation.
This is just the latest bill to alter or abolish the lottery that Hall has offered this session, as he carves out a legacy of fighting to rid the state of former Gov. Ann Richards’ defining mark on Texas.
Hall is joined in his push by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who has paid impromptu visits to lottery ticket resellers and the Texas Lottery Commission. Notably absent: Gov. Greg Abbott.
As we learned in Season 9 of EXPOSED, the Texas Lottery, like its counterparts in other states, was created to benefit vendors, not the citizens of Texas. At this point, the lottery’s continued existence, regardless of the agency in charge, represents a risk to the individuals angling for its survival.
