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Addiction Warnings on Lottery Tickets Recurs in Florida Legislature

House Bill 629 for lottery tickets has survived a vote in the House Commerce Committee. The approval of the bill paved its way for a full House floor appraisal. A matching piece of legislation was presented in the Senate, but that it is still yet to be reviewed by members of the Legislature’s upper house. Authored by Rep. Robinson, HB 629 requires all Florida-facing lottery sellers to have the same message on the front of all lottery products that are distributed across the state. In addition, the bill also orders that the Lottery Department has to also put the same note on all lottery advertisements and promotions.

The precise wording of the message by Rep. Robinson is:

“Warning: Playing a Lottery game creates gambling addiction and it may lead to addiction and/or obsessive behaviour. The odds of winning a big prize are low.” Senator Keith Perry submitted the Senate version of Rep. Robinson’s part. As stated above, the amount has not been heard in Senate meetings yet.

Bill for Warnings on Lottery Tickets Repeats in Florida

Record of Lottery Tickets Sold

News about Florida possibly moving to add a caution notice on all lottery tickets came after the state’s Lottery Secretary, Jim Poppell, declared that the Florida Lottery was on the move to exceed its record sales of $6.7 billion in the 2017-2018 economic year. Last month, major lottery provider Scientific Games Corp. said that its long-time partner, the Florida Lottery, broke the record for single-week marketing sales of prompt lottery games in the United States. What’s more, Florida residents purchased about $126.3 million worth of scratch cards.

There was a parallel push for adding a warning on the back of lottery tickets in 2017. The measure did pass the House naturally, though it faced opposition in the Senate. Still, it managed to survive through that law-making hurdle. Nevertheless, the proposal was prohibited by then Florida Governor Rick Scott. Allegedly, Governor Scott said the piece was imposing “onerous regulations on the Lottery and retail partners”. More so, most of the notice provisions it controlled were “duplicative of present Lottery initiatives.”

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