Raffles

The oldest, and still Texas Lottery very popular, form of lottery in America is the raffle, or local drawing. Next to Bingo, raffles are the country’s biggest fund raisers for charity. Fraternal organizations, veterans’ groups and almost every other kind of organization in the country have benefited at some time from a raffle of some sort. Many raffles have automobiles valued at $2,000 to $15,000 as prizes, with the raffle tickets seffing from a low of 10 to a high of $100. Some drawings have $50,000 and $125,000 homes as their top awards. And, I have known of some raffle tickets on estates that have sold for as much as $1,000 each.

Closing Instant Texas Lottery Games

SB 1200: Concerns the closing of instant games sold by the Texas Lottery. The legislation if passed, would require the Texas Lottery to close all games of chance once the top prizes have been claimed. "I think people were outraged to learn recently that some scratch off games were still being sold months after the advertised texas lottery prizes were no longer attainable. And even more disturbing were the press reports that some officials were fine with the arrangement because people were still buying those tickets. This is a betrayal of the public's trust and I look forward to correcting it," Senator Patrick added.