Would have added online sales, removed ticket expiration
HARTFORD, Conn. — Connecticut Lottery players won't get to enjoy buying tickets online or without expiration dates anytime soon.
The legislature's Public Safety and Security Committee declined to vote on the proposals by its deadline Tuesday, after hearing opposition from lottery officials, convenience store owners and gambling addiction experts.
"There just wasn't support for these going forward," said state Sen. Timothy Larson, D-East Hartford, co-chairman of the committee.
One bill would have allowed third-party companies — but not the Connecticut Lottery Corp., which runs the state lottery — to sell state lottery tickets online. That plan drew concerns about lottery fraud on the Internet, lost business for convenience stores and increased risks of underage gambling and gambling addiction.
"Internet sales of lottery tickets should be carefully operated and managed by the lottery, not any variety of service providers seeking a license," Anne Noble, president and CEO of the Connecticut Lottery Corp., told the committee at a public hearing this month.
Eight states allow players to buy lottery tickets or subscriptions online, according to Patrick McHugh, an executive with Scientific Games, which supplies the Connecticut Lottery Corp. with products. McHugh told the legislative committee that having third parties sell state lottery tickets would create unnecessary risks to the integrity and security of the Connecticut Lottery Corp.
The other bill would have allowed the sale of lottery tickets that don't expire and created a "tribunal" to see if players with winning tickets that expired should get any money. State lottery tickets now expire after 180 days. There have been several failed efforts over the years to eliminate prize expiration dates.
Noble said the bill would deprive the state of $8 million to $16 million a year in revenue from unclaimed lottery prizes, and possibly prevent Connecticut from selling tickets for the multistate games Powerball and Mega Millions, which require a 180-day prize claim period.
A lottery player, Brenda Torres, urged the legislative committee to approve the bill. She said she bought a lottery ticket a few years ago and won, but thought the prize claim period was still one year, as it was before it was shortened to six months in 2009.
Torres said she learned about the shortened claim period after returning from visiting relatives in Puerto Rico and immediately tried to redeem the ticket but was told she was a few days late. She didn't say how much money she would have won.
Well, that is a lot of money -- from unclaimed winning lottery tickets -- that the state would miss out on!!! Looks like these thieves, with currently short claim period, will continue to win.
180 days and 1 year are most typical, but New Mexico is only 90 days. I find it interesting how most everywhere in the U.S., unclaimed property can be claimed many years, even decades, afterwards, but lottery tickets can't be.
Don't expect lengthened claimed periods, barring a widely publicized lawsuit over a huge denied win and/or a "late" lottery winner going berserk and getting vengeance; amazed that hasn't happened yet given how frequently tickets aren't timely claimed. As it stands now, many lottery jurisdictions budget on unclaimed winnings - they won't give that up easily. If anything, it's likely more lotteries will try to shorten their claim period going forward until there's significant push-back.
These are the same politicians who b*tch and moan when they need funding for projects or find ways to increase taxes. What happened to letting the people vote whether to have online lottery sales or whatever. These are the people who we vote for to run our government. Idiots!!!
I agree with all 3 posters, so far.
It seems our higher-ups are always doing something, pulling some shenanigans and such, and making it sound like it's to our benefit.
When, actually, they're filling their own pockets. I think that's why they started making paper money, so it won't jingle so much, when we walk around.
Noble said the bill would deprive the state of $8 million to $16 million a year in revenue from unclaimed lottery prizes, and possibly prevent Connecticut from selling tickets for the multistate games Powerball and Mega Millions, which require a 180-day prize claim period.
That doesn't sound right. I'm pretty sure MM and PB are a year, although only 60 days for a cash option, in Illinois.
It's probably a good thing this particular bill didn't go through. Online sales through a third party service sounded like a nightmare waiting to happen.
Noble said the bill would deprive the state of $8 million to $16 million a year in revenue from unclaimed lottery prizes, and possibly prevent Connecticut from selling tickets for the multistate games Powerball and Mega Millions, which require a 180-day prize claim period.
PB and MM winners have 180 days or 1 year to claim a jackpot in every state, except Maryland which is 182 days. The states get to set the time limit. Sounds like Noble needs to learn about the game, or at least go to the USA MEGA site once in awhile.
Corrupticut... Nuff said