The Tennessee House passed a bill that would require names of lottery winners to be cross checked with government assistance programs on February 27th. If the lottery winner won more than $5,000, they would then be ineligible for government assistance programs. The bill passed by party-lines, 73-21.
House Minority Leader Craig Fitzhugh questioned if the legislature was taking an anti-lottery position by passing this bill.
“If you’re on government assistance, I would hope as a policy that all of us in this chamber would agree that you should not be wasting your money that should be used for food for your children and medical expenses and everything else on something as silly and ridiculous as the lottery,” Rep. William Lamberth, R-Cottontown responded.
