Proposed Bill Would Allow Purchase Of Lottery Tickets Online
BOSTON (CBS) – At first blush, this plan's not even a winner with its intended audience.
Almost all of the lottery ticket buyers at Kiki's Kwik Mart convenience store in Brighton this morning were opposed to the idea of the state selling lottery tickets online. They said being able to purchase them from home, and on a credit card, would lead to excessive gambling and unnecessary debt.
Selling lottery tickets online could net the state a much-needed one billion dollars annually. That represents a huge windfall for cities and towns who depend on that money, but it might come at the expense of people who sell the tickets now.
Sophia Aiello's family runs Kiki's. She says the plan to sell lottery tickets online is a "terrible idea". She says the store's lottery sales are already hurting, and this would make it even worse, with customers buying their tickets from the comfort of their homes rather than in the store.
WBZ-TV's Jim Armstrong reports
There's also the problem that online gambling, paid with credit cards, is illegal.
A few other states do it, taking advantage of what State Treasurer Steve Grossman calls a "legal grey area" - a place in which he does not want to see Massachusetts stake a claim.
"I don't think we should go for the sale of lottery products online using credit cards. I think it would exacerbate the problem, the problem gaming and problem gambling, people overdoing it," said State Treasure Steve Grossman, the head of the Massachusetts State Lottery Commission.
Grossman said the proposal is "essentially online gaming."
"So, the idea that we would create online gaming, and the use of credit cards to allow people to buy lottery tickets and to do other things, which would have to be authorized at the federal level. It's a big issue," said Grossman.
WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Carl Stevens reports.
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Grossman added that online gaming would have to become law at the federal level before Massachusetts would be able to join in the discussion, and he wouldn't move forward with the proposal until the state consults gaming experts in and out of government.
"But, we've got to analyze it. We can't act like it's not going to happen. It may happen some day, and I want to make Massachusetts a winner in that process, and not caught with our heads buried somewhere, not reviewing properly the appropriate response," said Grossman, who formed a task force to study the issue.
The lottery generated around $885 million in profit for the state in 2010, and Grossman said that most of the money went directly to local aid.
"Personally, I don't think we're ready for (selling lottery tickets online)," said Grossman. "We've got 7,300 lottery agents all over the state who average $37,000 of profit every year."
Congressman Barney Frank told the Boston Herald he supports the bill, which supporters claim could generate $1 billion per year for the state.
Strangely, at the hearing to discuss the proposal, no one came forward - not even anyone from the office of the senator who wrote the bill.
But that does not mean this issue is dead - far from it. Both the lottery commission and the state treasurer say they'll probably support a similar bill eventually, once all their concerns are addressed. That's something that could happen sooner rather than later.
WBZ-TV's Jim Armstrong Contributed to this report
