Louisiana will probably stay with scratch-off games and the purchasing of lottery tickets at gas stations and the like. Rose Hudson, president of the Louisiana Lottery Corp., says the conservative political atmosphere will probably keep the on line lottery from reality.
Easy Street in Louisiana won't be as easy to hopefully obtain like it is in Illinois, as the Pelican State won't be getting into selling lottery tickets over the Internet.
Illinois became the first state to sell lottery tickets on line on Sunday, according to The Advocate.
The state will probably stay with scratch-off games and the purchasing of lottery tickets at gas stations and the like. Rose Hudson, president of the Louisiana Lottery Corp., says the conservative political atmosphere will probably keep the on line lottery from reality.
Citing that 30 percent of one foreign country's gross gambling profits came via the Internet, Hudson told the Advocate, "I do worry about us not considering it." She says that New York and Maryland are about to go with Internet lottery ticket purchases.
Hudson informed legislators about the on line lottery movement. "Let's please not be blind about this," she says.
Lottery proceeds are expecting to generate some $400 million this fiscal year, with $137 million going to state government.
In order to have lottery tickets available on line, it would have to go through the House criminal justice committee. And Rep. Joseph Lopinto, chairman, says given Gov. Bobby Jindal's view on the expansion of gambling, it wouldn't get very far.
"I'm assuming that he would classify that as an expansion, which I don't think is an overreach by any means," Lopinto told the Advocate.
Hudson says the lottery has expanded its revenue options with doibling the prices of Powerball tickets, adding Mega Millions, a multistate lottery, and introducing new scratch-off games.