Lawmakers reject student bills:For warning labels on lottery tickets
Passion Play cast in a 2013 performance
Passion Play cast in a 2013 performance
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And the students didn’t understand how it happened.
The Lottery Oversight Committee decision on the three bills was made via voice votes, where no member was recorded as casting a ballot. They often do that on controversial bills to shield lawmakers from having votes used against them later.
During the senators’ votes, it sounded as though there were an equal number of yeses and nos. However, the chairman, longtime lottery proponent Sen. Steve Cohen and an opponent of the bills, declared they had been rejected.
“We all thought it sounded equal. … I don’t think he should have the call,” said Christin Hagan, 18, granddaughter of Rep. John Hood, D-Murfreesboro.
The votes don’t mean the bills are dead. The committee can only make recommendations to regular House and Senate committees, not kill legislation.
But Rep. Glen Casada, R-College Grove, who sponsored the bills on the students’ behalf, acknowledged that it was “strike two and there’s a fastball coming down the middle.” He plans to present the bills to a House subcommittee next week.
Hagan and three of her fellow students at Centennial High School in Franklin — Angie Nizick, Joe Mesta and Rachel Horton — testified to the committee about the proposed warning labels on tickets and dispensers that would say: “Gambling, including playing the lottery, can be addictive.” It would include a phone number for a gambling addiction help line. Similar information would be provided on television, radio and written advertisements.
Currently, Tennessee lottery tickets and ads urge participants to “play responsibly” and there is a link to the National Council on Problem Gambling on the lottery Web site at www.TNlottery.com.
Steve Adams, chief administrative officer for the Tennessee Education Lottery Corp., said he and his colleagues believe that’s enough. He said other lottery officials have found that placing an addiction help line number on the tickets confuses some lottery players who call trying to find the winning numbers.
Also, he said, no direct link between the lottery and gambling disorders has been found.
The students said 6 percent of compulsive gamblers begin by playing the lottery.
They also said other states that had enacted similar legislation saw no drop in lottery sales.
“We don’t understand why you wouldn’t want to put a warning label on if the ticket sales stay the same,” said Horton, 18.
The students began the quest as a project for their school’s DECA club.
Three of them are going to in-state schools and will take advantage of the $3,000 scholarships funded by lottery profits, but said they don’t want other families to suffer for it. “They might not be able to afford to send their kids to college,” Horton said.
Cohen, D-Memphis, said those children could qualify for lottery scholarships if they study hard. He doesn’t think lawmakers should “micromanage” the lottery and believes that addiction is more often linked to sports and casino gambling.
“I don’t see where this is something we should be doing,” he said.
Sen. Jim Bryson, R-Franklin, said it’s exactly the type of policy decision legislators should make.
“We know gambling addiction destroys people and families,” he said.
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On the Net:
Tennessee General Assembly, www.legislature.state.tn.us