The Michigan Lottery will sell tickets online next year -- unless legislative critics block that.
A showdown between Gov. Rick Snyder and opponents of Internet wages is ahead, AP correspondent David Eggert reports from Lansing at WDIV's site and other media.
The Snyder administration is requesting more than $3 million to launch an "iLottery" in early 2014. . .
The Republican-led Legislature is split over the iLottery, with the House agreeing to the funding request and the Senate planning to reject it. . . . Some lawmakers fear increased gambling addiction, debt and a hit to brick-and-mortar stores participating in the lottery.The debate is heating up as the Legislature sets spending for the next budget year.
Eggert quotes Rep. Kevin Cotter, R-Mount Pleasant, sponsor of a bill to ban online lottery sales.:
"It's alarming that the state would be leading the charge in online gambling. State-sponsored, wherever-you-are-gambling on a credit card — that just doesn't pass the smell test for me.
"It's up to us as legislators to stand up and take issue with that source of revenue."
In the Senate, a proposed ban is introduced by Sen. Rick Jones, R-Grand Ledge. "We could have cases where people gamble away their home from their couch," he tells AP's writer.
On the other side, Rep. Earl Poleski, R-Jackson, welcomes the prospect of increased lottery proceeds for education, according to Eggert.
"In days of limited dollars available for (schools), it would be imprudent to not consider how to grow that revenue."
Illinois and Georgia sell lottery tickets online, a move also being considered by Pennsylvania and Massachusetts.
