Robbing Peter To Pay Paul

Officials with the Texas Lottery have a problem. When they are honest about the size of the check the winner of their jackpot will get, nobody wants to play. According the Austin American-Statesman, the jackpot for the drawings has been stuck at $4,000,000.00. This despite the fact that no one won. Usually, the jackpots are increased when there are no winners. So why are the jackpots not increasing? Officials say the lagging sales and their own cautious estimates have caused lottery officials to set the Lotto Texas jackpot at the minimum amount allowed.

Earlier this year, it was discovered that Texas Lottery officials had lied about the size of payouts 4 times since October 2004. The executive director quit. After being caught cheating, lottery commissioners decided to guarantee all jackpots, meaning that the state will pay for any shortfall if sales don't support the payout. That means that if ticket sales only support a $2,000,000.00 jackpot, lottery officials go ahead and advertise a $4,000,000.00 payout, with the state making up the difference. But I thought the lottery was going to be a windfall for the state's education funding. Weren't we sold the lottery as something for the childlin'?