Lotteries have found themselves at the centre of extensive legislative and media debates in the US states of Texas and Oregon, with integrity central to developments in both.
Anonymity in Oregon
Looking at Oregon first, House Bill 3115 was initially introduced to prevent the resale of lottery prizes and prevent people from claiming winnings on behalf of others in exchange for payment.
The Bill was approved by the Oregon Senate yesterday by a margin of 52 in favour, one opposed and with seven other Senators excused from the vote. The Senators’ approval will solidify the bill’s lotto integrity protection efforts in law, but it has come with an interesting add on.
Similar to developments in Texas, where legislators have been pushing forward Bill 1346 to prevent retailers from selling tickets to large groups of individuals, the Oregon legislation is aimed at protecting the integrity of lotteries.
Legislators are particularly keen to prevent the practice of lottery winners reselling their tickets at a discount to avoid paying taxes on the winnings and avoid debts like child support payments, according to The Oregonian/OregonLive.
However, another group of legislators have proposed an amendment to the bill which would make lottery winners anonymous. This would end a long-standing practice in the state, one shared by numerous others across the US, which requires lottery winners to collect their cheque in person at payment centres in either town of Wilsonville and Salem.
This revives an attempt to do the same in 2019, which was ultimately rejected in the Oregon House of Representatives.
Speaking to Oregon Live, a former Senator who opposed the 2019 bill, Mark Hass, re-raised his argument that ‘there should be some form of public accounting of who wins these prizes’ given the ‘enormous jackpots’ seen in lotteries today.
A counter-argument may be that protecting the identities of lottery winners could prevent these winners being the victims of subsequent harassment and scam attempts.
Couriers, the Commission and a retailer conundrum in Texas
Meanwhile, over 1,500 miles away in Texas, confrontation continues to brew involving legislators and other policymakers, Lotto Texas, lottery retailers throughout the state and courier apps.
SB 1346 is being considered by the Senate, having been proposed by Bryan Hughes and Paul Bettencourt earlier this month. The Bill, if approved, will prevent sales of lottery tickets “persons attempting to purchase all possible winning tickets in a lottery drawing”.
The Bill has come about to due-long-held concerns in Texas about the integrity of its state lottery. This stems from an incident in 2023 in which what is believed to be a group of individuals bought $25m worth of lottery tickets to win the $95m jackpot.
Amidst all this, the Texas Lottery Commission is also moving to ban lottery courier apps – as stated above these are key participants in the lottery system in Texas, as well as in various other states.
The Commission’s move has been criticised by senators, with the regulator under a lot of legislative scrutiny due to the debacle around bulk purchasing of lottery tickets and associated concerns about retailer integrity.
Of note, the lottery courier apps – one of the biggest of which, Jackpocket, has abandoned the state in advance of the Commission’s rule coming into effect next month – are openly supportive of Senators Hughes and Bettencourt’s Bill 1346.
“SB 1346 calls for the prohibition of sales of Texas Lottery tickets to those attempting to purchase all possible winning tickets for a drawing,” a statement from the Coalition of Texas Lottery Couriers (CTLC) earlier this month read.
“This practice, commonly referred to as “bulk purchasing,” cannot be performed using a lottery courier service platform, and our companies have never engaged in the facilitation or fulfillment of bulk purchasing activity.
“On the contrary, we have for years advocated for statewide regulatory standards, including a prohibition on bulk purchases, and have been consistently told by the Texas Lottery Commission that it did not have the authority to regulate lottery couriers.
“Lottery couriers, which have been legally and responsibly operating in Texas since 2019, while always maintaining a transparent and professional relationship with the Texas Lottery Commission, will continue to encourage a regulatory solution, such as the one proposed by HB 3201, which allows our millions of Texas customers to continue to safely and conveniently order lottery tickets using our services.”