Texas Lottery and Charitable Bingo Social Media Guidelines and Comment Statement

Texas State Government Agency, Austin, Texas

Texas Lottery and Charitable Bingo Social Media Guidelines

Thank you for your interest in Texas Lottery and Charitable Bingo. We want our social media web pages to engage fans interested in sharing information about lottery operations, lottery games and events, and charitable bingo operations across the state of Texas. We post content online on the Texas Lottery social media pages to provide information about the Texas Lottery’s activities and primary mission to generate revenue for the Foundation School Fund to benefit Texas education and to fund programs for veterans’ assistance in Texas. We also post content online on the Charitable Bingo Facebook page to provide information about the Charitable Bingo’s activities and mission to promote and maintain the integrity of the charitable bingo industry throughout Texas.

If you have any lottery-related questions, please email us at customer.service@lottery.state.tx.us.

If you have any charitable bingo-related questions, please email us at bingo.services@lottery.state.tx.us.

You may also call us at one of the following telephone numbers:

Our street address is:

Our mailing address is:

Have an issue you need resolved? You may file a complaint with the Texas Lottery online or download the complaint form and submit the form via postal mail or fax.

We are committed to making sure you can access the information you need in a format that works for you, as stated in our Accessibility Statement.

Texas Lottery® games are designed to be entertainment and we encourage responsible gaming. Visit the PLAY RESPONSIBLY page on our website for helpful resources.

The following is important legal information for anyone who engages with the Texas Lottery and Charitable Bingo on any social media platform.

Guidelines and Comment Policy

Disclaimer: Posted comments and images not created by Texas Lottery or Charitable Bingo staff do not necessarily represent the views of the Texas Lottery or Charitable Bingo. External, non-Texas Lottery links on Texas Lottery or Charitable Bingo social media web pages do not constitute official endorsement by the Texas Lottery or Charitable Bingo. While we encourage our community to share thoughts and opinions, we expect that this will be done in a respectful manner.

The Texas Lottery or Charitable Bingo may not agree with or endorse every comment that individuals post on our pages. Our goal is to share ideas and information with as many individuals as possible and our intent is to accept most comments shared by our community.

Postings Subject to Summary Deletion: A comment or posting will be deleted if it:

• Does not relate to the Texas Lottery or Charitable Bingo;
• Contains hate speech or offensive terms that target a person or a protected class of people;
• Contains profanity, obscenity or vulgarity;
• Contains threatening language;
• Contains language that incites or promotes violence or illegal activities;
• Contains nudity, including nudity in profile pictures;
• Contains name calling and/or personal attacks;
• Advertises or promotes a product or service;
• Infringes on third-party copyrights, trademarks, patents or other forms of intellectual property;
• Is a spam comment, such as the same or a substantially similar comment posted repeatedly on a profile;
• Supports or opposes any social, political or personal cause, including specific political candidates and/or ballot measures;
• Contains personally identifiable/sensitive personal information or other confidential information; or
• Contains other language that the Texas Lottery or Charitable Bingo, in its sole discretion, deems inappropriate.

All links posted as comments on Texas Lottery and/or Charitable Bingo posts will be reviewed and may be deleted by the agency in its sole discretion.

Repeated or egregious violations of the Texas Lottery and Charitable Bingo’s Social Media Guidelines and Comment Statement may cause the author or user to be blocked from a social media web page(s).

We understand that social media is a 24/7 medium; however, our moderation capabilities are not 24/7. We may not see every inappropriate comment right away, and we are trusting in the maturity of our community to refrain from inappropriate comments, to ignore personal attacks and negative speech and to respond to comments politely.

Please contact Texas Lottery or Charitable Bingo if you have any questions or concerns.

Use of Website: Texas Lottery and Charitable Bingo social media content is provided as a service to those interested in the Texas Lottery and Texas Lottery games and/or the Charitable Bingo and bingo. Posted comments may not originate from the Texas Lottery or Charitable Bingo and, therefore, comments and images not created by staff do not necessarily represent the views of the Texas Lottery or Charitable Bingo. To view Texas Lottery content without using social media, please go to texaslottery.com. To view Charitable Bingo content without using social media, please go to txbingo.org. 

You must be 18 years or older to purchase Texas Lottery products or to play charitable bingo in Texas. Where available, Texas Lottery and Charitable Bingo use features provided by social media websites to restrict certain content to those who certify that they are at least 18 years of age.

Copyright and Trademark Notice: All logos, text, content, including underlying HTML code, designs, and graphics used and/or depicted on the social media web pages are protected under state, federal and international copyright and trademark laws and treaties, and may not be used or reproduced without the prior express written permission of the Texas Lottery or Charitable Bingo. For more information, please see the Copyright and Trademark Notice.

Copyright Infringement Notice: Texas Lottery and Charitable Bingo respect the intellectual property rights of others and we expect you to do the same. We do not allow users to post content that violates someone else’s copyrights.

If you believe that someone has copied your work, and that it constitutes copyright infringement, please provide our Texas Lottery's Office of the General Counsel with the written information specified below. This procedure is used exclusively for copyright infringement notification, and not for other alleged violations.

Information you should provide includes the following:

• An electronic or physical signature of the person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright interest;
• A description of the copyrighted work that you claim has been infringed;
• A description of where the material that you claim is infringing is located on the social media web page(s);
• Your address, telephone number, and email address;
• A statement by you that you have a good-faith belief that the disputed use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; and
• A statement by you, made under penalty of perjury, that the above information in your notice is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or authorized to act on the copyright owner's behalf.

Please send notice of an alleged copyright infringement to the Office of the General Counsel at the following address:

Trademark Infringement Policies: As with copyrights, Texas Lottery and Charitable Bingo respect the trademarks and service marks of others and expects its users to do so as well. You should not use a company or business name, logo, or other trademark-protected materials in a manner that may mislead or confuse others with regard to brand or business affiliation.

If we receive a report of a trademark violation from a holder of a federal or state trademark registration, we will review the user account and may take the following actions:

• When there is a clear intent to mislead others through the unauthorized use of a trademark, the Texas Lottery and Charitable Bingo will block the user’s use of the Texas Lottery or Charitable Bingo social media web page and notify the user.
• When we determine that an account appears to be confusing to other users but is not purposefully passing itself off as the trademarked good or service, we may give the posting user an opportunity to clear up any potential confusion. In such instances, we may also block a user from using our social media web page(s).

In order to investigate an alleged trademark violation, please provide the following information:

• The allegedly infringing user name;
• Your name, title, address, telephone number, email address, and company name;
• Your user name;
• The relevant website(s) of the infringer and you, if applicable;
• Your trademarked word, symbol, logo, etc.;
• Your trademark registration number;
• Description of confusion; and
• Requested action.

Please send notice of an alleged trademark infringement to the Office of the General Counsel at the following address:

Direct Interaction with Social Media Host Websites: Please note that social media websites that host Texas Lottery or Charitable Bingo pages are not Texas state government websites or applications; they are controlled and operated by the social media website host, and neither the Texas Lottery’s Privacy Statement nor the state’s Public Information Act applies to the social media website host. Although the Texas Lottery and Charitable Bingo’s Social Media Guidelines and Comment Statement apply to the Texas Lottery and Charitable Bingo’s assigned area of the social media website host, your use of the social media website is governed by the social media provider’s own policies. Neither Texas Lottery nor Charitable Bingo owns, manages, or controls the social media website host. If you choose to provide information to the social media website host through registration or other interaction with the social media website host, such interactions are between you and the social media website host. If you choose to register with the social media website host, any information that you provide is voluntarily contributed by you and is not maintained by the Texas Lottery or Charitable Bingo. Neither Texas Lottery nor Charitable Bingo collects, maintains or disseminates information you provide to the social media website host. Neither Texas Lottery nor Charitable Bingo can attest to the accuracy of information provided by the social media website host or any other non-Texas Lottery or -Charitable Bingo website. Texas Lottery's or Charitable Bingo's use of the social media website host does not imply endorsement by the Texas Lottery or Charitable Bingo or any of its employees of the social media website host, the sponsors of the social media website, or any information, product, or service depicted on the social media website.

Privacy Notice Regarding Third Party Websites: While we respect your privacy, Texas Lottery and Charitable Bingo social media content is in a public forum, and neither Texas Lottery nor Charitable Bingo can guarantee the privacy or security of information that users may post on the Texas Lottery or Charitable Bingo page of the social media website host. To protect your or others’ privacy, please do not disclose personally identifiable information or sensitive personal information about yourself or others (for example, social security number, driver’s license number, date of birth, mother’s maiden name, physical or mental health-related information). Posts that contain personally identifiable and/or sensitive personal information or other confidential information will be deleted. If you are looking for the official and most comprehensive source of information about the Texas Lottery or Charitable Bingo, please visit our official websites at texaslottery.com or txbingo.org. 

The Texas Lottery and Charitable Bingo follow the State Website Linking and Privacy Policy and encourage individuals and organizations that link to this website to do so. Please find more information in our Linking Statement.

Postings and Information on the Texas Lottery’s and Charitable Bingo's Social Media Web Pages: The Texas Public Information Act (PIA) may apply to the Texas Lottery’s and Charitable Bingo's assigned area of the social media website host. While the comments posted on the Texas Lottery's or Charitable Bingo's assigned area of the social media website host may be subject to the PIA, this area is not where the Texas Lottery or Charitable Bingo intends to conduct official business, with the exception of certain social media promotions the Texas Lottery or Charitable Bingo may conduct from time to time. With the exception of comments and information relating to such promotions, the Texas Lottery and Charitable Bingo intend all comments and information posted to be considered transitory and to be subject to deletion as soon as their purpose has been served. To the extent possible, and with the exception of social media promotions, the Texas Lottery or Charitable Bingo will only post on the assigned area of the social media website host information already contained at texaslottery.com or at txbingo.org. The Texas Lottery or Charitable Bingo does not propose to utilize the assigned area of the social media website host as a primary location of public records.

We hope you enjoy interacting with the Texas Lottery and Charitable Bingo through social media, and we look forward to hearing from you, our online community!