MEMPHIS, TN -- Hit the lottery and win millions, but walk away with just a few hundred dollars. Jimmy Vinson says, “I don’t think I would like it a whole lot. It wouldn’t be too nice.”
Vinson wouldn’t mind hitting the jackpot. He was recently laid off and spent the day at the Department of Human Services office on Jackson Avenue in Highland Heights, applying for assistance from the state. Even though Vinson is in need, a bill making its way through the Tennessee legislature could put a limit on his lottery dreams.
Under the proposed House Bill 818, anyone on Families First, food stamps, WIC, TennCare or any other state or federal economic or medical assistance due to being poor, would not be able to collect lottery prizes over $600. Any winnings above $600 would go back to the state as an unclaimed prize.
Representative Stacey Campfield (R-Knoxville) introduced the bill. He says, “If you can't afford the bare necessities and if you rely on the government for the bare necessities of life, you shouldn't be taking what money you do have and blowing it on the lottery."
But people told myEyewitnessnews.com a winning lottery ticket could be the ticket to help people get off the system. Vinson says, “Lottery tickets don’t cost a whole lot of money. It doesn’t take a lot of money to play the lottery. I think people should be able to do what they want to.” Another Memphis resident says, “It seems to me if they pay the same amount for their ticket that everybody else does, they should win the same amount as anybody else that’s going to win.”
According to Lotterypost.com, half of the nearly 300,000 people on food stamps in Tennessee buy lottery tickets. If those people stopped playing, the state would stand to lose $6.4 million in scholarships and grants it provides each year.
The bill would also prevent people convicted of crimes, serving time behind bars, to collect on lottery winnings.
