California Lottery officials announced Tuesday that the Sacramento Superior Court ruled that California's participation in the multi-state Mega Millions game is legal and that the California Lottery is authorized to operate the game in the state.
The court further stated that the Lottery Commission is lawfully operating and the Mega Millions' joint operation in California does not require specific legislative approval.
The ruling is a crushing blow to a small but vocal anti-lottery group, as well as to California Democrats, who helped to launch the lawsuit in order to disrupt the workings of the Schwarzenegger administration. The Republican Governor pushed California's participation in Mega Millions as a way to help lift the state from financial hardship.
"We're very pleased with the ruling to keep Mega Millions in California," said Joan Borucki, Acting Director of the California Lottery. "Mega Millions will continue to be sold, prizes will be paid and proceeds will benefit public schools".
While the court acknowledged that a remote conflict may exist regarding different jackpot claim periods among partner states, the court has given the Lottery a year to address this issue.
Californians have contributed more than $151 million to public schools from Mega Millions sales since it began on June 22, 2005. The popularity of Mega Millions has continued to grow and sales trends reflect this fact. Sales for the game have been growing since November of 2005 when a group of Kaiser employees won a $315 million Mega Millions jackpot.
Overall Lottery sales for the current fiscal year to date are $2.97 billion (unaudited through April 30, 2006) representing a $162 million increase over last year's revenues for the same period. As a result, for the sixth consecutive year, the California Lottery will transfer more than $1 billion in supplemental funding to California's public schools.
I'm glad someone's public shcools are getting the money. You can't really tell that tennessee public schools are getting any money by the way they are charging the students for everything lately. The money might be going somewhere in tn, but it isn't going to my kids' schools. The schools here are just a huge political disappointment. I can't even think of it without getting a migraine these days.
I'm happy that CA kept MM in order to get money raised for education and maybe have a balance budget and/or surplus. However, I'm disappointed that my guess was wrong (guess was CA win lawsuit to stop MM).
Gold Rush - subscription sales in CA were never more than about 1.5% of sales for the available games and because of the way they chose to operate the subscription system (as a phony baloney, unautomated [meaning manual handling of subscriotion requests], make work job support system for state employees) it was actually a drain on profits for CA education.
I never had a doubt that MM was legal in CA - the wording of the enabling Ammendment and Legislation is not ambiguous in this area. That didn't mean that I didn't worry about a judge mucking it up :)
I don't think the 6 months vs. a year to claim a prize will be meaningful. In fact, if they were to change it, one could argue that CA is not really administering the game for themselves. By law, this is the kind of decision the Commission is expressly supposed to make.
I'm glad someone's public shcools are getting the money. You can't really tell that tennessee public schools are getting any money by the way they are charging the students for everything lately. The money might be going somewhere in tn, but it isn't going to my kids' schools. The schools here are just a huge political disappointment. I can't even think of it without getting a migraine these days.
its about time.....now CA can safely enjoy MegaMillions
when is the government going to butt out of the games??
The California Lottery ran a subscription service a few years ago, they should do so again. it would raise more revenue for education.
I'm happy that CA kept MM in order to get money raised for education and maybe have a balance budget and/or surplus. However, I'm disappointed that my guess was wrong (guess was CA win lawsuit to stop MM).
when is the government going to butt out of the games??
when is the government going to butt out of the games??
When will the government butt out of anything ?
Gold Rush - subscription sales in CA were never more than about 1.5% of sales for the available games and because of the way they chose to operate the subscription system (as a phony baloney, unautomated [meaning manual handling of subscriotion requests], make work job support system for state employees) it was actually a drain on profits for CA education.
I never had a doubt that MM was legal in CA - the wording of the enabling Ammendment and Legislation is not ambiguous in this area. That didn't mean that I didn't worry about a judge mucking it up :)
I don't think the 6 months vs. a year to claim a prize will be meaningful. In fact, if they were to change it, one could argue that CA is not really administering the game for themselves. By law, this is the kind of decision the Commission is expressly supposed to make.
when is the government going to butt out of the games??
The simple answer is...Never.