How is Texas Lotto doing this year despite the recession of the economy?”
Texas has dodged the worst of the nation’s severe current economic downturn, but the outlook this year is less optimistic. The decline in the national economy is so severe that most Texas cities won’t avoid recession, economists at a Moody’s economic seminar in Dallas said Wednesday. During 2008, Texas was one of the few states to stay above water in the steep economic downturn. “It is weakening, though, very rapidly – so far it’s barely holding its own,” said chief economist Mark Zandi of Moody’s Economy .com. “I think it’s conceivable that before it’s all said and done that every state in the nation will be in recession,” Zandi said. “I don’t think that has ever happened. “Not only is the downturn extremely severe, it is very broad-based across industries and regions.” At its annual Dallas economic outlook conference, Moody’s, an independent supplier of economic analysis, said the Dallas-Fort Worth area was on the edge of recession at the end
Aug. 12–AUSTIN — While other states are sustaining a downturn in lottery revenue during the nation’s recession, Texas sales are holding their own this year as thousands of residents continue to look for quick fortune through scratch-off games and multimillion-dollar jackpots. Lottery sales through the week that ended Saturday totaled $3.4 billion, a $3.1 million (0.1 percent) increase over last year. The purchases have generated $891.6 million in revenue for public schools, and lottery officials hope that the total will top $1 billion when fiscal 2009 ends, on Aug. 31. “It’s looking good,” said Robert Heith, spokesman for the Texas Lottery Commission. “We’re ahead of where we were this time last year in sales and revenue.” By contrast, at least 14 other states have recorded drops in lottery revenue, according to the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government at the State University of New York. The declines reflected an overall downturn in the gambling industry as Americans become
