1-1     By:  Ratliff                                           S.B. No. 581

 1-2           (In the Senate - Filed February 12, 1997; February 18, 1997,

 1-3     read first time and referred to Committee on Finance;

 1-4     March 24, 1997, reported favorably by the following vote:  Yeas 10,

 1-5     Nays 1; March 24, 1997, sent to printer.)

 1-6                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-7                                   AN ACT

 1-8     relating to the cost of operation and administration of the state

 1-9     lottery.

1-10           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

1-11           SECTION 1.  Subsection (b), Section 466.355, Government Code,

1-12     is amended to read as follows:

1-13           (b)  Money in the state lottery account may be used only for

1-14     the following purposes and shall be distributed as follows:

1-15                 (1)  the payment of prizes to the holders of winning

1-16     tickets;

1-17                 (2)  the payment of costs incurred in the operation and

1-18     administration of the lottery, including any fees received by a

1-19     lottery operator, provided that the costs incurred in a fiscal

1-20     biennium may not exceed an amount equal to 12 [15] percent of the

1-21     gross revenue accruing from the sale of tickets in that biennium;

1-22                 (3)  the establishment of a pooled bond fund, lottery

1-23     prize reserve fund, unclaimed prize fund, and prize payment

1-24     account; and

1-25                 (4)  the balance, after creation of a reserve

1-26     sufficient to pay the amounts needed or estimated to be needed

1-27     under Subdivisions (1) through (3), to be transferred to the

1-28     unobligated portion of the general revenue fund, on or before the

1-29     15th day of each month.

1-30           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1997.

1-31           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the

1-32     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

1-33     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

1-34     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

1-35     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.

1-36                                  * * * * *