Ban on Welfare Lottery Players Proposed : Assemblyman to Seek Law Barring Use of Grants to Buy Tickets

Welfare recipients would be banned from purchasing tickets and collecting California Lottery prizes under legislation proposed Tuesday by Assemblyman Tom Bane (D-Tarzana).

The proposed law will be introduced in the Legislature after it reconvenes in January, Bane said.

“Such a law will act as a disincentive for welfare recipients to spend their grants on lottery tickets,” he said in a statement.

“Welfare grants are intended for shelter, food and clothing for the recipients or their children and should only be spent for the intended purpose.”

Bane said it is unfair to allow welfare people to use state money to compete against Californians who use their own money to play the lottery.

He said several constituents had complained about the practice, including some who suggested that illegal aliens or non-citizens also should be banned from playing the lottery.

However, extending the proposed prohibition to aliens would go too far, Bane said, because they at least are using their own money to play the lottery, while welfare recipients are not.

The assemblyman noted published reports about welfare recipients spending hundreds of dollars on lottery tickets. Some of them have won large prizes, he said.

One player, Donna Lee Sobb of Sacramento, recently won a $50,000 prize that under current lottery law disqualifies her to remain on welfare rolls, because it raised her income.

Another problem, Bane said, lies in the enforcement of the proposed law.

There is no practical way for ticket sellers to know about the status of $1 ticket buyers, so lottery officials would probably have to concentrate on people who win prizes of $5,000, $10,000 and up, because they are required to submit tickets with signed statements and Social Security numbers.

The proposed statute would require simple majority votes for passage. It would make it illegal for welfare recipients or people acting on their behalf to purchase a ticket or collect a prize.

Bane said Gov. George Deukmejian’s position on the proposal is as yet undetermined. Bane and other lawmakers authored other lottery legislation in this year’s session, but it failed to obtain the required two-thirds vote for passage. Other lottery legislation was vetoed by Deukmejian.