Welfare Cap on Lottery Winnings
09/04/2009 13:10:46
A proposal for a new bill in parliament has put forward a welfare cap on Lottery winnings. The proposed move in Memphis would put a cap on lottery winnings for anyone on Families first, Food stamps or any other state or federal economic or medical assistance benefits. It would mean that anyone who is poor would not be able to collect lottery prizes of over $600.
Winnings by anyone on state assistance over and above $600 would go back to the state as an unclaimed prize.
Representative Stacey Campfield who introduced the bill has said, if you can’t afford the bare necessities and rely on the government then you shouldn’t be taking what money you do have and blowing it on the lottery.
It would seem however that people in the state do not agree and feel that a winning lottery ticket could be the way to help these people get out of the state system. Lottery tickets don’t cost a whole lot of money and maybe people should just be able to do what they want to without worrying about a ‘nanny state’.
According to a recent poll, half of the 300,000 people on food stamps in Tennessee buy lottery tickets and if those people stopped playing the lottery then the state would stand to lose over $6 million in scholarships and grants that it provides each year.
The new bill would also prevent people convicted of crime from buying lottery tickets and claiming lottery prizes.
It’s a risky move for the state and surely will knock millions off the profits of the lottery as it’s a well known fact that the poorer people in an area commonly buy lottery tickets as their ‘ticket’ out of the life they are stuck in. This is one story we will be watching very closely.
Page Last Updated: 04/06/2010 10:53:24
