U.S. Representative Barney Frank has spoken in favor of a push to make Massachusetts Lottery tickets available online. Those who support the measure believe it could bring in profits of almost $1 billion every year, to a state treasury that’s almost depleted. National lottery

“I don’t understand why liberals think they’re supposed to tell people not to gamble,” Rep. Barney Frank stated. “They favor gay marriage, legalization of marijuana and sex-oriented literature, but not gambling. It’s totally inconsistent. It’s wrong for state and federal government to make betting a crime. .?.?. I am in favor of people being able to gamble online.”

Legislators will consider a bill which will make the Massachusetts State Lottery create a program which would enable lottery players to purchase their lottery tickets online, by using their credit cards. The measure should increase lottery sales by 10 to 25 percent. Lottery numbers

“The idea behind it is to increase Lottery sales and generate more revenues for the commonwealth,” John Regan, Sen. Michael Rush’s Chief of Staff, stated. “Other states are doing it, and the senator thought it would be best to do a pilot program to see how much could be raised.” Senator Michael Rush is the man who introduced the measure, while in Iraq, serving with the Navy Reserves.

John Regan said that the gambling industry is losing money daily by not regulating it online. He estimated that 60,000 people spend $250,000 every day with foreign gambling operators. Lottery checker

“The Lottery can capture these revenues by offering (what) the online gaming residents want along with the transparent regulation that offshore regulators lack,” Regan stated.

The Executive Director of the Massachusetts Municipal Association, Geoff Beckwith, said that any online plan must be done with a lot of attention and legislators need to take their time “because the Lottery is such a source of revenue for cities and towns, we want to make sure that any changes are done carefully.”

“Allowing credit card payments without careful analysis of the consequences could very easily exacerbate problem gambling across the state,” State Treasurer and boss of the state lottery, Steve Grossman, stated.

Meanwhile, state lotteries in North Dakota, Virginia, New York, Maryland and Minnesota are offering online lottery tickets, and some are making quite a bit of money from it.

“We introduced online purchases as a convenience to our customers because we want to offer products to people where they are,” Carolyn Hapeman, a New York State Lottery spokesperson, stated. “Lots of our customers are snowbirds who winter in Florida or North Carolina, and it makes it easy for them to buy.”