To make the Texas Lottery popular with a wider crowd, a rule change is proposed to make it possible to offer the lottery on some sort of casino slot machines, which should be available wherever lottery tickets are sold. The proposal for this rule change brought up a lot of emotion among anti-gambling forces, who are afraid this is just another method to make casino slot machines legal in
According to a spokesperson for the Texas Lottery Commission, the goal of the rule change is not to allow every kind of casino slot machines in
Suzi Paynter, who monitors state government for the Baptist General Convention of
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Due to the negative reactions from anti-gambling groups towards the lottery machines, Gov. Tom Vilsack, has now frozen the decision of the lottery machines in
Lottery spokesperson Bobby Heith stated that the proposed rule is designed to be able to make quicker changes in technology, to give Texans new and improved ways to play the lottery games and to generate about $1 billion a year for the state.
Paynter believes that the Texas Lottery Commission should reject the proposed rule change and wait for the Legislature to give the state a clear direction on whether computerized casino slot games are appropriate for Texas.