The Texas Lottery Commission is ending several scratch-off games next month, even though more than $25 million in promised jackpots for those games have not been awarded or claimed by winners.
The Texas Lottery Web site still advertises nine prizes from $1 million to $5 million for its priciest scratch-off, a $50 ticket called the $130 Million Payout Bonanza. As of Thursday, only three of the nine jackpots had been claimed by winners.
Another $50 game, the $130 Million Spectacular, was the state's first $50 game and became the nation's priciest ticket when it was rolled out in 2007. It, too, is ending next month with only $10 million of its $21 million in top prizes doled out to winners.
A year ago, a study by the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News found that most $130 Million Spectacular tickets were sold in middle-income neighborhoods and not in the affluent areas originally touted as the game's target. At the time, officials with the lottery -- which generates money for public schools -- said the two $50 ticket games combined had raised $158 million in revenue for the state.
However, lottery officials now say the soon-to-be-closed games are not selling well and take up valuable store shelf space, both newspapers reported in Saturday editions. The commission has no set criteria for stopping games, spokesman Robert Heith acknowledged.
Since early 2007, the commission has ended games for any of three reasons: sluggish sales, top prizes claimed or 85 percent of a game's total prizes claimed. Earlier this month, the commission authorized game closings for reasons that don't fall into those categories.
Michael Anger, director of the agency's operations division, said flexibility is critical for the agency to give players games they want.
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But Gerald Busald, a math professor at San Antonio College, said the lack of specific criteria for ending games could be used to hinder players because the commission avoids paying the promised big prizes.
"You ought to have procedures for doing anything," Busald said.
Dawn Nettles, a lottery watchdog who runs a Web site for players on Texas Lottery games, believes the commission may close games knowing full well that winning tickets have never left its Austin warehouse.
Heith denies that the commission holds back or knows the location of its winning scratch-off tickets. Still, some players are irate. Anger said he hopes new scratch-off games to be released over the next few months will allay the concerns of even the harshest critics.
A new $20 game, for instance, will carry half a billion dollars in possible prizes, including 50 prizes of $1 million. The game is expected to have a longer run than usual and the agency is ordering 33 million tickets, as opposed to 3 million or 4 million for a typical scratch-off game.
Whether that game also closes early before its second year will depend on its success, Anger said.
The Texas Lottery Commission reported in December that ticket revenues plummeted by $45.1 million since the previous fiscal year, a 4 percent decline that state officials attribute to Hurricane Ike and the recession.
