Lottery players who feel hoodwinked by the Texas Lottery Commission will have to wait another month before the agency changes rules that determine how much money Lotto Texas winners are paid.
The commission today delayed adopting an amendment in the game's rules until next month and announced the formation of a search committee to consist of state government officials and members of the public who will aid the commission in finding a new executive director.
The decisions came three days after the state's top lottery executive resigned amid a scandal over inflated Lotto jackpots.
Reagan Greer resigned Friday as executive director of the commission after admitting he approved inflated jackpots of Lotto Texas to entice more people to play a game that was experiencing a drop in sales.
An internal review uncovered four instances since October in which the commission had advertised Lotto jackpots of $8 million that were more than what the agency could have paid winners. There were no winners in those four instances.
"I would really like to see a way that we could pay the advertised amount no matter what," said commissioner James A. Cox, Jr. "The only question is where we get the money."
One proposed change would guarantee winners the advertised jackpot for every drawing. Currently, advertised jackpots are guaranteed only for the first four drawings.
Commissioners expressed concern over the potential for "disasters or calamities," such as hurricanes, which could disable them from paying advertised jackpots in full.
Lotto TX still is a much better game than NY Lotto.
Can you please stop repeating that?
Lotto TX...ok Todd
Personally, I have defended your right to say whatever you want on the forums, even though I get complaints on an almost daily basis about your 1- or 2-word attacks on the NY Lottery and stuff like "Loser for Life" that you post constantly.
Some people wonder if you're just trying to boost the number of messages posted, and some think I'm nuts for allowing the stuff to be posted like a parrot out of control. Either way, it does not appear to be something that people are enjoying seeing, because your comments often have nothing to do with the topic you're posting in.
For example, the news item above is something that could generate some very interesting discussions, but when people see that "NY Lotto" complaint, it kind of shuts things down, and takes the discussion away from where it shoud be.
Why don't you focus your negative feelings toward the NY Lottery by starting a topic thread devoted to just that topic, and then anytime you feel the need to post the negative comments, post them in that thread, rather than raining on someone else's parade?
todd:
I see what you mean. I'm more likely to bash NY Lotto when its jackpot is high, to discourage people from playing it.
I think Texas Lotto should have a guarantee jackpot when it is at 4 to 7 million. When it goes 8 million and above, they should estimate in tenths of millions of dollars such as 9.5, 8.7, etc. What do you think about my ideas?
I don't think TX needs to round jackpots to the 100k.
To be pratical, I think jackpots should only be guaranteed at the lower amounts or for the first few drawings. After that there are all kinds of things that could happen to cause sales to come up short through no fault of the lottery. They simply need to make good estimates from now on and try to win back the trust of the TX public - it will take time - trust always takes time.
they have to get the people trust back slowly but surely.