TN Legislators Say Lottery Ticket Pooling Could Be Seen As Gambling

CHATTANOOGA, TN, (WDEF)-It could be you, millions of dollars on your lucky numbers but the Tennessee Attorney General feels pooling lottery tickets is "unlawful" and "gambling".

Not everyone agrees.

"For having the lottery is to fund good programs you are un-funding your programs by limiting the office or friend pool scenario, i guess i don’t see it as a form of cheating bas someone who buys individual tickets"

Others feel legislators are too removed to make decisions on what constitutes gambling.

"They are too high up to understand, they understand that their taxes are dropping when they can pull out money from the lower end"

At Metropolitan Ministries they say some clients will pool their money to buy a lottery ticket when there’s no food on the table

Rebecca Whelchel,"When it means that people are choosing to participate in a lottery event rather than buy food in the hopes they can buy more food next time, there’s a problem"

Whelchel feels too many  people put faith in what they say are their "lucky numbers" but end up on the losing side.

"The problem there is the word hope and when there are so few opportunities for the poor in this community the lottery represents a hope, even if it’s a false one"

Legislators say it boils down to a statute which states pooling lottery winnings should not involve a third party unless they are the Tennessee Education Lottery Corporation.

Tennessee Legislators added that many lottery tickets are for profit and do not provide donations to charities.