Bill seeks to resolve legal questions about Mega Millions

<p>Hoping to head off a legal battle, a state senator on Tuesday announced a proposal that would settle questions about the legality of California's entry into a multistate lottery game.</p><p>Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter, said he hoped his measure would keep the state out of legal "hot water" in a dispute over the 12-state Mega Millions game.</p><p>Gambling opponents filed a lawsuit last week attempting to shut down the game, which is in its third week of operation in California. They said an initiative voters passed 21 years ago to create the lottery does not explicitly allow the Lottery Commission to join an interstate game.</p><p>The Attorney General's office and the Legislature's lawyers have issued conflicting legal advice on the matter.</p><p>"The purpose of the bill is to give some certainty to something where we should have been certain from day one," Florez said.</p><p>Florez's bill was introduced Monday as an amended version of a previous Senate Bill dealing with high school technical education. It would give the commission the ability to enter a multistate lottery agreement as long as the games are not played internationally and do not involve slot machines or Internet gambling.</p><p>"Those sort of games were never envisioned by the people passed the initiative in 1984," he said.</p><p>SB1011 also would force the commission to devote more of the money earned from the multistate games to schools and less to the administration. The commission must devote at least 34 percent of earnings to education, but Florez's bill would boost that to 45 percent.</p><p>Those questioning the state's involvement in the multistate game largely praised the bill.</p><p>"We want to hold this commission accountable to the people. The Florez bill, in that sense, represents a victory," said Sacramento-based attorney Fred Jones, one of the lawyers who filed the lawsuit on behalf of the California Coalition Against Gambling Expansion.</p><p>Jones said his clients would wait to see how the bill fared in the Legislature before deciding whether to pursue their lawsuit.</p><p>The measure is expected to move through the Senate Governmental Organization Committee quickly and could pass the Legislature before lawmakers adjourn in September, said Florez, who chairs the committee.</p><p>The other states involved in Mega Millions are New York, Texas, Massachusetts, Michigan, Ohio, Maryland, Georgia, Illinois, New Jersey, Virginia and Washington.</p><p>Also Tuesday, a lottery commission spokeswoman confirmed that an employee had posed as a freelance reporter during a recent news conference held by Jones and antigambling groups.</p><p>The Oakland Tribune reported Tuesday that Kim Smith, a legislative liaison who reports to acting director Chon Gutierrez, identified herself as a freelance reporter. She asked Jones and his clients detailed legal questions and recorded their responses.</p><p>Lottery spokeswoman Rosa Escutia said Smith regularly attends press events "to ascertain information and get a better understanding of what the issue is." But Smith was not directed by any commission employee to misrepresent herself, she said.</p><p>"No, she was not asked to pose as a reporter," Escutia said.</p><p>Smith has apologized to the plaintiffs and is being counseled by attorneys. Tapes of the interview will be turned over to the state attorney general's office and given to the plaintiffs, Escutia said.</p><p>Escutia called Smith a "stellar employee" and said she could not comment on whether she would be punished. A spokeswoman for the governor said his office would not get involved.</p><p>"It's an issue for the lottery to sort out," Margita Thompson said.</p><p>___</p><p>HASH(0x1cdebcc)</p>

http://accesswdun.com/article/2005/7/142998