Lottery bill has never been scored, but its ready for the House floor

Floridians turned to scratch-offs during the pandemic.

A requirement for warning labels on every Florida Lottery ticket is ready to be heard on the House floor. But no one knows what it could cost the state, and the bill’s sponsor has no plans to ask.

Rep. Will Robinson told members of the House Commerce Committee that he hasn’t asked the Revenue Estimating Conference to score economic impact for HB 991.

“We have no plans,” the Bradenton Republican said.

That’s notable considering concerns warning labels could hurt Lottery sales, and indirectly cost millions in education revenue for the state, loomed large in Gov. Ron DeSantis’ decision to veto similar legislation last year.

State estimators last year at one point asserted the legislation cost reduce education payouts by $325 million.

For that matter, it prompted former Gov. Rick Scott to do the same when different warning labels were proposed in 2017.

Rep. Evan Jenne, a Dania Beach Democrat, questions the decision not to calculate costs for the bill.

“You have an amendment dealing with potential fiscal consequences,” Jenne noted.

That amendment, which says the Florida Lottery won’t have to put warning labels on lottery ticket dispensing machines because it would be too costly, was approved in the Commerce Committee.

Robinson, for his part, said he has plenty of reason to believe the label proposal this year would be the least financially detrimental one proposed yet.

His legislation last year called for a label that covered 10% of a lottery ticket surface or marketing materials promoting the games. This year, that requirement has been cut in half, to 5%.

And while Robinson at one point last year was pushing for a warning that was 25 words long, his bill right now only calls for the words “Play Responsibly.”

Robinson has noted those words already get used prominently in marketing materials for the Florida Lottery.

His bill also would stop the Lottery from participating in the sports betting arena, should the state ever approve legislation allowing that to occur here.

Supporters of the warning labels have argued the state should not depend on revenue raised by compulsive gamblers who would be deterred by the words “Play Responsibly.”