Florida Lottery issues last-minute challenge to ‘addictive’ warning labels

The Florida Lottery wants another look at the potential impact on education funding from legislation that would require slapping gambling-addiction warning labels on the front of tickets and ads.

Gov. Ron DeSantis is getting closer to deciding whether to approve the bill (HB 629), which passed the House and Senate in early May.

An initial projection about the bill’s impact on education funding was made in March. But, appearing this week before state economists, Florida Lottery Director of Product Shelly Gerteisen said officials have subsequently learned that the warning labels could affect the state’s participation in multi-state games such as Powerball and Mega Millions and end scratch-off games that feature the TV shows “The Price is Right” and “Wheel of Fortune” and board games Monopoly and Scrabble.

Gerteisen on Wednesday also advised economists, who serve as the state Revenue Estimating Conference, that the added gambling-addiction language could require printing larger tickets, which would increase costs and potentially affect contracts with retailers that provide vending machine games.

“All of these groups have voiced significant opposition to this bill,” Gerteisen said.

The measure, which has not formally been sent to DeSantis, requires the following warnings to be prominently placed on the front of all Lottery tickets: “Warning: Lottery games may be addictive,” or “Play responsibly.”

DeSantis said Thursday he’s concerned about the bill.

Former Gov. Rick Scott vetoed a similar measure in 2017, saying it would impose “burdensome regulations” on the games and retailers.

The Florida Lottery, which already encourages customers to “play responsibly” and promotes a toll-free number about gambling problems, would become the first in the nation to include warning labels similar to what can be found on cigarette packs.

Gerteisen said the late-emerging opposition could result in hundreds of millions of dollars being lost that would otherwise go to the state Educational Enhancement Trust Fund to help pay for education programs.