Category Archives: Jackpot!

The stalking horse

Peggy Fikac brings up a familiar point about expanded gambling. [Rob Kohler, a Texas Baptist Christian Life Commission consultant working against gambling expansion] suspects the gambling talk is paving the way for a new push to lease the state lottery … Continue reading

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You can now waste your money on Powerball

As of this week, Powerball tickets are now available in Texas. In case you’re tempted to buy one, here’s how good your chances are of winning. The odds for hitting the Powerball jackpot are 1 in 195,249,054. That’s right, 195 … Continue reading

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Here comes Powerball

Powerball will come to Texas as soon as January 31 after a unanimous vote approving sales of its tickets by the Texas Lottery Commission. “What the Legislature has charged us to do is to raise revenue, and this is going … Continue reading

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Texas to get Powerball

The Texas Lottery Commission is fixing to bring Powerball to Texas. The commission unanimously voted to publish rules for the game for public comment. If the panel gives final approval to the rules early next year, the first Powerball ticket … Continue reading

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Scratch EZ Match

I can’t say this comes as a surprise. EZ Match is a scratch. The Texas Lottery Commission pulled the plug Friday on the proposed game that would have allowed players to become instant winners by handing their money to a … Continue reading

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With more gambling comes more problem gambling

The never asleep gambling industry in Texas likes to point out how much business the casinos in Oklahoma and Louisiana get, which includes a hefty amount from Texans. But as gambling becomes more prevalent, so do gambling addictions. Tribal casinos … Continue reading

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One step closer to expanded gambling in Texas?

Maybe, though I’m not sure how much closer this really gets us. [The] Chickasaw Nation of Oklahoma is poised to take possession of an existing horse racing track in Grand Prairie. The tribe runs one of the biggest Indian casinos … Continue reading

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Now you can blow your money on lottery tickets even faster

Is it just me, or does this sound like much ado about not very much? A proposed lottery game that would allow players to become instant winners (or losers) without so much as scratching a ticket is under fire from … Continue reading

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The fifty dollar flop

Guess those fifty-dollar scratch-off Lottery tickets weren’t such a big deal after all. The Texas Lottery Commission is set to cut several poorly performing scratch-off games, even though more than $25 million in promised top jackpot prizes have yet to … Continue reading Continue reading

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Why lotteries make me queasy, continued

I’ve said before that I have decidedly mixed feelings about state-sanctioned gambling, in particular state lotteries. Part of that is because of the social costs of gambling, especially on lower-income folks, and part is because of the sleazy characters involved … Continue reading Continue reading

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The state of the lottery: Booooooring!

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Texas lottery revenues are declining. Texas officials fear that revenues dropped more than $100 million in the most recent fiscal year — a $49 million blow to public education — because the … Continue reading Continue reading

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Lottery sales down

This is just what school districts need to hear right about now. Texas lottery officials are monitoring a decline in ticket sales that they say could reduce the amount of money the lottery sends to public schools if the trend … Continue reading Continue reading

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If at first you don’t privatize, try try again

You have to hand it to Governor Perry. He never gives up, no matter how bad the idea is. Texans could buy lottery tickets at the checkout lines in supermarkets and big-box department stores, at coffee shops and cabarets. They … Continue reading Continue reading

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Free Starbucks At 11 AM Today!

Starbucks is giving away 8 oz cups of its new “everyday” coffee at all its locations at 11 a.m. CDT today. This freebie only lasts 30 minutes, so don’t be late or you’ll turn into a pumpkin latte. There has … Continue reading Continue reading

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Lottery privatization still lurking out there

I thought the idea of privatizing the Lottery was pretty much dead after it went over with such a thud last year, but apparently some bad ideas never truly go away. Texas would have to expand gambling to see the … Continue reading Continue reading

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Fifty-dollar scratch-off redux

You may need to sit down for this one: Those fifty-dollar scratch-off games that the Texas Lottery pushes on the public in the hope of luring richer people to play, are instead mostly bought by not so rich folks. The … Continue reading Continue reading

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Which races are they playing in?

This is one of the more disturbing political stories I’ve seen lately, both for its lack of concrete information and its far-reaching implications. Texas’ ailing racing industry is planning an expensive gamble for survival — a $3 million campaign and … Continue reading Continue reading

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Why lotteries make me queasy, in a nutshell

I’ve expressed my ambivalence about state-sanctioned gambling before. On the one hand, I’ve got enough civil libertarian in me to be wary of outlawing clearly popular activities like gambling. On the other hand, the gambling industry, especially the state lottery … Continue reading Continue reading

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Well, somebody likes those fifty-dollar lottery tickets

I’ll never understand it, but plenty of people are snapping up those fifty-dollar scratch-off Lottery tickets. For all the naysayers who couldn’t imagine folks gambling on $50 on a single lottery ticket….Turns out, the state is making out like a … Continue reading Continue reading

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The Lottery: Still not a game for the rich

The good news is that rich folks do seem to be buying those new fifty-dollar scratch-off Lottery tickets, as the Texas Lottery Commission thought they would. The bad news is that they’re not buying any of the other pricey scratch-off … Continue reading Continue reading

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One bourbon, one scotch, and one lottery ticket

You know what I was thinking? I was thinking that what our great state’s watering holes really needed was the ability to sell lottery tickets. And now, they may just get it. The House gave final approval this afternoon to … Continue reading Continue reading

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Exporting our bad ideas

Remember Rick Perry’s grand idea to sell the Lottery? Perhaps you’ve forgotten, since the last I can recall hearing about it was in February, and as far as I can tell it’s deader than Generalissimo Franco. But just to prove … Continue reading Continue reading

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The fifty-dollar scratch-off game

There are things in this life whose appeal completely eludes me. Things like broccoli. Kenny Chesney. Fifty-dollar lottery tickets. That’s the price of the state’s newest scratch-off game, dubbed $130 Million Spectacular, which goes on sale Monday and offers nearly … Continue reading Continue reading

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Scratch-off ripoff revisited

In February, the Chron printed a story about how the Lottery would continue to sell scratch-off games long past the point where all of the top prizes had been claimed. After the predictable outrage, the Texas Lottery Commission has changed … Continue reading Continue reading

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Scratch-off ripoff

As someone once said, “Of course the game is rigged. Don’t let that stop you–if you don’t play, you can’t win.” Except that with scratch-off games, you might not be able to win anyway. anyone spending $5 on a Deal … Continue reading Continue reading

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One, two, three, what are we selling the Lottery for?

I’ve got to give the Senate Finance Committee credit here – they asked some pretty good questions about the proposed Lottery sell-off. Sen. Troy Fraser, R-Horseshoe Bay, wondered whether a private company operating the lottery might view slot machines as … Continue reading Continue reading

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A back door to more gambling?

Here’s a thought: Could the effort to sell off the Lottery be a back door to expanded gambling? The Texas Lottery might look quite different under a private operator if the state opens the door to online games, casino-style Keno … Continue reading Continue reading

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Like father, like son

I can’t even think of a good snarky intro to this, so I’ll just say it: Governor Perry’s son has been hired by one of the financial consulting outfits involved in the proposed Lottery sell-off. UBS, one of two large … Continue reading Continue reading

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Lobbyist connections: Not just for vaccine orders!

I’m sure you’ll be as shocked as I was to learn that Governor Perry’s harebrained scheme to sell off the Texas Lottery comes complete with its own cozy lobbyist connections, just like the HPV vaccine order did. Former U.S. Sen. … Continue reading Continue reading

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Pretty much all you need to know about the Lottery selloff plan

I’ve highlighted the logical incongruities of Governor Perry’s plan to sell off the Texas Lottery, but as I’m not what I’d consider a financial expert, I wasn’t sure if I was missing something obvious. Now, thanks to Vince, I see … Continue reading Continue reading

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Would you buy that?

Now that I’ve seen the plan to sell the Lottery, I just have one question: What in the world are they thinking? Perry centered his State of the State address on the idea of selling the state lottery for at … Continue reading Continue reading

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Privatize the lottery?

I’ll say this about the Perry administration: They’re consistent about their desires. Gov. Rick Perry said Thursday that his State of the State address on Tuesday would include a plan to fully privatize the Texas Lottery by selling it to … Continue reading Continue reading

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“I want my three dollars!”

Good news! You just won the lottery. Well, not the big prize, but the little one, $3 worth for correctly picking three out of the six numbers. You go to your local Kwik-E-Mart to claim your winnings, and…Well, check out … Continue reading Continue reading

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Texas Lottery: Still screwed up

Hey, remember the inflated Texas Lotto jackpot scandal, the one that cost unqualified Perry crony Reagan Greer his job? It was supposed to have been fixed last year. Well, not quite, according to an audit of the Texas Lottery Commission. … Continue reading Continue reading

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