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The Proposed Rule
(Html) - Click here.
The Proposed Rule (PDF) Click here.
The original entire May 11, 2001 Proposed Rule (Pdf) Click here.
The unclaimed prize money. Players lost $29 million between Aug. 2000 and July 2001. Click here to read.
My letter of objection to Kim Kiplin
regarding the proposed rule change plus other
objections. I'm re-sending my letter as is. Click here (pdf format).
E-mails - the People Speak. Click here.
E-mail your comments to me. Click here
A comment that you can print, sign and mail (also one at the bottom of this page to just copy and paste) - Click here
A petition - Help me gather signatures. Click here - (PDF)
Call the Commissioners
and tell them how you feel about all this. They'll talk to you ... but the TLC won't.
Commissioner
C. Tom Clowe Jr.
3521 Northridge
Waco, Texas 76710
(254) 751-0766
Commissioner
Betsy Whitaker
2811 McKinney Ave.
Suite 310
Dallas, Texas 75204
(214) 754-9190
Commissioner
Walter Criner
Criner-Daniels & Associates
6420 Richmond Ave.
Suite 645
Houston, Texas 77057
713-787-0900
Mail Comments To:
Dawn Nettles
P. O. Box 495033
Garland, Texas 75049-5033
Phone (972) 686-0660
Fax (972) 681-1048
If you are uncomfortable mailing your letters and petitions to me,
then mail them directly to the Commission:
Texas Lottery Commission
Attention Kim Kiplin
P.O. Box 16630
Austin, Texas 78701
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Q & A
Question: What does it mean when lotteries advertise a $?? million jackpot? Doesn’t it mean they have $?? million for the 6 of 6 winner cash on hand?
Answer: NO, that is not what the figure means. The lottery projects how much the 6 of 6 winners share of sales is and how much it will bring in after that amount has been invested for 24 years. (The rule currently states that the top prize winner is entitled to 37.532% of sales.) The jackpot figure that they advertise is suppose to represent the “approximate” amount the winner should receive over a 25 year period after his share of sales has been invested.
Question: Why should I care if they pay the advertised jackpot amount to the 6 of 6 winner? What difference does it make?
Answer: If they say it’s a $4 million jackpot and IF you win, then they will pay you exactly $4 million over 25 years ... even if they don’t have enough money to bring in $4 million. That sounds great. Huh? But, by the same token, IF they advertise the jackpot at $20 million and IF you win, then they will pay you exactly $20 million over 25 years .... even if they have enough to bring in $27 million over a 25 year period. Does that sound great to you too? Do you know how much $200,000 would amount to in 24 years if was in the pool but you didn't receive it? A LOT!
Question: It seems that paying a percentage of sales is safe for the state where as paying the advertised amount could be costly and/or crooked too. Why would they purposely propose to pay the advertised amount to the 6 of 6 winners?
Answer: The reason is simple. They don’t have enough money to make good on a $4 million jackpot - in fact - they only have enough to make good on $2.5 million. To advertise the term “win an estimated $4 million,” then the winner better receive at least $3.6 million for that phrase to be considered "truth in advertising." The TLC has been intentionally misleading the public with the jackpot figures since 1997 and they've been overpaying winners just to make good on their "advertised amounts." If this rule is adopted, then they can “legally” pay some winners more than what's in the pool for that win and then pay other winners less than what's in the pool for their win. Remember though - it only stands to reason that they have to make up for what they overpay - Where do you think they’ll get the money? By under-estimating the higher jackpots is how!
Question: I read where Keith Elkins said that players would never know the difference if this rule change were adopted. Is that right?
Answer: Unfortuately that is probably a true statement because most people don't know how to figure out how much money is "really" in the kitty nor do they "really " know what the rule says the TLC is suppose to do. People trust the TLC - which is a big mistake. The truth is, the TLC's been paying the advertised amounts since 1997. Then last year I started posting how much was actually in the prize pool and the TLC immediately quit underpaying top prize winners when there was actually more than required to obtain a return of the advertised amount. That's why they are finally trying to write this in the rule now. They didn't want to write it in the rule previously - they didn't want to be pinned down to it but to keep the starting jackpot at $4 million and to allow them to keep overages "legally," they have to write it in the rule. I feel this is wrong - I think every winner should be treated equally and receive the same exact percenatage of sales.
A little extra tidbit - you can rest assured that when they had the $85 million jackpot that Ms. Cloud was one sick puppy because she had to give the winners the full amount in the prize pool. You see, it only required $48 million to invest to get a return of $85 million but there was $51 million in the prize pool. By paying the advertised amount, the TLC had been keeping the excess money - in this case - it would have amounted to $3 million. Just think, they went to all that trouble to build large jackpots and now they're trying to take money away from the winners who may get "too much." FYI - Other winners weren't quite so lucky - they were shortchanged because nobody was looking out for them. Unfortunately too, I heard Texas statute doesn't allow the winners to sue the Commission for underpaying them - however - I think they could get sued for discrimination.
Question: In reading the transcripts, it seems like the Commissioners are a push over. They don't seem to spend much time on the issues before voting. Do they even understand what's going on?
Answer: The people fought for open meetings and open government. Unfortunately, I've learned that these meetings are nothing more than a formality unless someone is there to see to it that something gets on the record. The truth is, Ms. Cloud and Ms. Kiplin talk to the Commissioners through out the month and lobby for what they want. If you'll pay attention in reading the transcripts, you'll see where Ms. Cloud, Toni Smith, Kim Kiplin or whoever says something to the effect, "Well, I won't go there now, you know what that's all about" .... or they'll say, "Well, I don't know but I'll call you later on it. OK" They say these things to keep the answer or the facts off the record.
I can show you tons of these comments and I can even tell you why they said it and what they were hiding.
Also, it's unfortunate too that the Commissioners do not play the games and can't always understand things from a players viewpoint. Ya'll must remember, the people who run the Texas Lottery are finance wizzards and lawyers - and they do not play the games. They don't lose ANY of their hard earned money. Linda Cloud still has the same objective that she did the day she was named Executive Director - she's still trying to make more money for the lottery but keeps failing. Things are much worse today than they were when she took control and she blames everything and everybody but herself and her poor management decisions. In my opinion, this proposed rule change is nothing more but another attempt for her to recover her losses and I promise you, she will purposely under-estimate the larger jackpots so she can take the 'excess' to build up the reserve account so she doesn't have to lower the $4 million to $2.5 million at this time.
Question: Didn’t we already comment and have a 30 day comment period on this very subject? Weren't my comments considered?
Answer: This specific rule change was originally proposed on May 11, 2001 and the 30 day comment period began then. But during the June Commissioners meeting the Commissioners requested that the rule be “better defined” so counsel went back to the writing table. She [Kim Kiplin] edited the language and re-submitted it in late July. She claimed the rule needed “re-proposing” because the language was a drastic change so that's what they've done. The comments received pertaining to “paying the advertised amount vs the percentage of sales” have all been thrown out so we must start all over. Since they came back with the same proposal, then I think it would be safe for us to assume they didn't care what we had to say about all this. But they will care when it's all said and done - I promise.
Question: You mean we wrote them last May and June and now they expect us to write again even after we opposed this very specific rule change? This doesn't seem fair. Why would they do this to us?
Answer: I don’t consider this fair either but it’s the law. To have our objections heard and as part of the record, we MUST comment again. As to why they did this ... I can't say for sure but if I had to make an educated guess, I'd say they did this to buy time so they could re-group and find a way to show the Commissioners that players are in favor of this rule change. This is the tactic they used when they got the 4 balls approved.
Question: How can they possibly find people in favor of paying what they advertise instead of the amount set aside from sales for the winners?
Answer: Real easy. First, I think they'll use stats from a recent phone survey where they ask players to rate from 1 to 7 this loaded question: "Now, suppose you were trying to imagine an ideal lottery or gaming experience, how appealing would the following factors be to you?" You have 3 guesses as to what number one was .... That's right - it was - "A multi million dollar grand prize." Tell me, who wouldn't rate that a 7? I suspect they will use this tidbit to try to convince the Commissioners that players aren't interested in winning $2.5 million - the amount they'll have to lower the starting jackpot to if this rule is not adopted.
Haven't you ever wondered why the jackpot goes from $4 million, to just $6 million then to just $9 million. It's because they don't have enough money from the "6 of 6 winners share of sales" to invest to get a return that is close to the amount advertised. The TLC lied about the odds on the scratch off tickets, they've been lying to us since 1997 about how much the starting jackpot should be and they've been paying the advertised jackpot amounts even though its not written in the rule since 1997. It's great that they overpay winners (not economically wise though) but it's not great that they've underpaid some winners. The written rule states that the top prize winner is entitled to 37.532% (previously 32%) of sales and the TLC should have paid at least that much but didn't prior to my posting these figures in July 2000. But they certainly have been since July 2000!
Back to the original subject of how they will find people in favor of this change ... I suspect they'll also show a film of a selected focus group to the Commissioners showing players response when asked something to the effect of, "Would you rather see a starting jackpot at $4 million or $2.5 million?" Of course, we'd all say $4 million. But you won't see that the participants really understand that by "guaranteeing" $4 million will ultimately mean the TLC will probably be forced to "under-estimate" some larger jackpots so they can offset what they overpaid on the lower end. I don't think their answers would have been the same if they had known this tidbit. This is only my speculation - time will tell.
Question: So how do we comment this time? Can we submit our old comments, letters, faxes and emails? Will the TLC accept phone calls or emails this time?
Answer: The TLC will NOT accept emails or phone calls for comment. They will accept comments only in writing and they must arrive by way of US mail or fax. You can re-send your previous comments. You do NOT have to re-write your letters.
BUT I will accept your emails and I will see to it that the TLC receives them. In fact, this time I PREFER to receive them so none can get "lost." An incentive for you to comment is - the law says the TLC has to address every comment and they have to be posted in the Texas Register if they adopt the rule. So the more comments they receive, the more work they have to do! Ya'll didn't know that they actually addressed your questions or comments, did you? Yep, IF they adopt the rule, then they make a list of all the comments they received and they respond to each and every one of them. This is posted in the Texas Registry. This is why I say they are re-grouping - they must have somebody in favor of the change and it must be on the record. They are sly little devils - huh?
If you have a question that you think should be included with these, just send it to me and I'll address it. OK?
A comment
for you to send ...
Just copy, paste and send!
NO to 16TAC - 401.305 & 401.312
I believe all winners should receive the same exact percentage of sales - No winner should receive more or less than other winners. Pay us what we have coming - nothing more and nothing less. We do not approve of the TLC paying the amount they advertise. That figure should represent ONLY the estimated amount the winners will receive.
NO to 16TAC - 401.302 - Scratch Tickets
I believe the TLC should tell players how many scratch tickets were printed and how many prizes there are for each prize before selling the tickets. This information should be available at EVERY retail outlet for people who inquire. Do not delete paragraph “K” that states, “a game report must be completed showing the number of prizes claimed at the end of each game.” This information should be a matter of public record.
Please help me by commenting.
Thank you in advance.
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