NJ may ban scratch ticket sales if big prize is already gone
Bill would bar retailers from selling leftover tickets
Some New Jersey lawmakers want to restrict sales of the state’s instant lottery games once your chances of winning go down.
A bill sponsored by Assemblyman Paul Moriarty would require that the New Jersey Lottery stop the sale of scratch-off tickets in a game where the top prizes have already been claimed.
“They’re still running the game and still asking to pay five, ten, twenty dollars for a scratch off ticket where the grand prize is no longer there. I think that’s patently unfair and I think that if a private enterprise were running that kind of a raffle the attorney general would be investigating.”
A spokesman for the New Jersey Lottery Commission says they already stop distribution of tickets when top prizes are claimed. But retailers are allowed to sell tickets they already have on hand. The measure approved by the Assembly’s regulatory oversight and gaming committee would halt those sales.
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