Mississippi studies state lotteries

The special House panel held its second meeting on Tuesday, in order to discuss other state lotteries.

US.- As Mississippi is gathering information to expand the possibility of creating a new state lottery, the House Lottery Study Working Group, a special House panel that has been working on a requested study, held its second of three meetings at the Capitol on Tuesday.

The body that was formed by the government to analyse the activity in close states held its first meeting in May and is expected to meet again in October, with a final report in November, which will only provide the information to house members instead of making a statement of whether Mississippi should allow lottery services or not.

This week’s meeting was focused on lotteries from Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas, Nebraska and Wyoming, the state with the newest lottery. All these lotteries use a percentage of their earnings to fund education. According to Chairman of the study committee, Richard Bennett, R-Long Beach, “a lot of them feel it is just a shell game. If (state earnings from a lottery) goes to education, that just means less money from the general fund to education,” and added: “A lot of people feel it makes for a better sale if some of it goes to education.”

Bennet also said that lottery officials in Louisiana and Arkansas commented that the stores near Mississippi are the busiest, and that authorities from the latter would not be happy if the state creates a lottery.