Late last week, the Texas Senate voted to abolish the Texas Lottery Commission, transferring oversight of scratch-off tickets and number drawings to the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation with a new set of strict laws and regulations. All of this is being done to address a decade of scandals that have come to light, which have led some lawmakers to call the lottery a “money laundering” operation. Under the Senate plan, TDLR will have two years to fix the lottery, or it will be abolished.
Yesterday, we asked readers if they thought the Texas House should adopt this change.
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“The lottery should be shut down altogether. It was sold to Texans as a way to raise money for education, and that was just another lie from Austin politicians.” – John R. Blocker, Jr.
“Why wait two years? Abolish now.” – Lisa Buck
“Don’t extend the life of the lottery by reforming it. Shut it down immediately. It started with the lie that it would find education; it never did, and it provides little income to the state budget.” – Paul Rawlings
“Shut it completely down! There’s nothing good about a lottery and gambling of any kind. It’ll save the state and thousands of citizens tons of money.” – Susan Perry
“Kill the snake now, don’t try to rehabilitate it!” – Rowland Greenwade
“This is proof that any form of gambling causes greed and corruption. The best way to fix this problem is to eliminate it!” – Elyce Mouskondis
“The lottery preys on low-income people, and we should not have that in Texas.” – Ted Shaw
“The whole thing should be ended. As long as you run a gambling operation, someone will try to rig it.” – Dorothy Strachan
“You can’t move a sick child to another room and expect it to get well!” – Bill Gee
“Why wait two years to allow another ‘scheme’ to be formulated? Let it sunset or shut it down ASAP.” – Sandra Grove
“It seems, once again, the best we can do is kick the can down the road. The Lottery was a bad idea at its inception. Lottery reform is, at best, like moving a pile of manure from one place to another. But, maybe it will be closer to being eliminated entirely.” – Roger Taylor
“The Texas lottery needs to be completely shut down permanently. I voted against it from the beginning.” – Janet Gustafson
“There is no such thing as ‘an honest bet.’ Changing oversight simply means new scoundrels will emerge to get rich off the poor and ignorant. The State does not need to be in the gambling business.” – Steve Sullivan
