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 could be sold in Texas on Jan. 31.
Texas already is part of the Mega Millions multi-jurisdiction lottery game, and officials for years have discussed the idea of adding Powerball to the mix.
The two big games just recently reached an agreement to allow states to participate in both. Previously, states had to pick one or the other.
It was back in 2003 that the TLC approved Mega Millions, after being given the authority to join multi-state games by the Lege. Looking back through my archives, I don’t see why they demurred on Powerball at the time. It may be because its jackpots are not guaranteed as advertised and can be reduced if ticket sales do not reach the needed levels. That’s kind of a sore spot at the Lottery Commission.
One objection that was raised at the time and is being raised again is that Powerball will not bring in the millions of extra revenue that the TLC is projecting.
Lottery watchdog Dawn Nettles, who operates the Lotto Report Web site, predicted, “It’s going to kill (the state jackpot game) Lotto Texas.”
“They’re not going to get more money out of the players, because the people don’t have it to give,” Nettles said. “All they’re going to do is divide their money amongst the games.”
Rob Kohler, a consultant for the Texas Baptist Christian Life Commission, said his group is most concerned about instant-win scratch tickets because they are impulse purchases.
He said that as a jackpot game, Powerball is “pretty benign.” He added, however, “We don’t think it will solve any of the budget problems or add any more money to the state.”
I think that at first, when Powerball is shiny and new, it will spur an increase in lottery revenues. Going forward, its ridiculously large jackpots may draw in more casual players. But I think Nettles has a point – I think a lot of Powerball’s sales will come from Texas Lotto players who have shifted their purchases from one game to the other. At the very least, I hope the TLC tried to include that likelihood in its models. Anyway, for those of you looking for the chance to throw away a few bucks on a one-in-147,000,000 chance, you’ll get it starting next January. We’ll see how much revenue for the state it really does generate.