“They’re not winning enough,” said Kamran Kahn, a Temple convenience store manager. “Gas is really high and electricity is high also. People are barely making ends meet.”
On Tuesday afternoon, two of Kahn’s customers said they don’t play the lottery any more because they rarely won.
Kahn’s store, Temple News Inc., is at the intersection of East Central Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Drive. It lies in the heart of the two Temple-area zip codes with some of the lowest average incomes. Social advocates have long argued the lottery exploits low-income residents. Those who can least afford it, spend more on lottery tickets.
Bobby Heath, spokesman for the Texas Lottery, said he’s heard this assertion before.
“There has been some concern, especially from legislators, who represent those districts,” said Heath.
But he is not convinced that is true.
“That’s probably an assumption anybody could make. You would just have to ask the lower income people,” Heath said.
Judy Morales deals with those low-income people every day. She is director for the Bell County Temple HELP Center. She is not surprised to hear low-income people spend more on lottery tickets.
“I think people just give up and spend their money on something they might have hope in,” said Ms. Morales. “It’s one way they could possibly get out of a situation. It’s sad, sometimes people will sacrifice paying bills to have a chance . . . again, I’m not in their shoes.”
Heath said the Texas Lottery uses focus groups before rolling out new games, such as a $50 scratch-off called $130 Million Spectacular that was released in June 2007.
“We are very careful about anything that could be perceived as targeting any group.”
Suzii Paynter is director of citizenship and public policy for the Christian Life Commission of the Baptist General Convention of Texas. She is concerned low-income people are spending money they can’t afford to lose on lottery tickets.
“The sad thing is our state has substituted a false hope for an exciting future,” Paynter told a Baptist General Convention of Texas reporter in 2005. “Poor people are playing the lottery because they think it’s going to change their future.”
For the last three years, Bell County lottery sales have hovered around $56-$57 million. Statewide, lottery sales have been stagnant the last two years ($3.7 billion) after five years of steady growth.
According to the state lottery: 27 cents out of every lottery dollar goes to the foundation school fund; 61 cents is used to pay winners; 5 percent goes to both retailer commissions and lottery administration; 2 percent goes to other state programs.
In 2006, the University of North Texas in Denton conducted a demographic study regarding the Texas Lottery. They found players of “Hispanic origin had higher participation rates than respondents with other demographic characteristics.”
On May 29, 1992, Gov. Ann Richards bought the first Texas scratch-off ticket at Polk’s Feed Store in Oak Hill, outside Austin. She lost.
