The Texas Lottery Commission will continue allowing tickets sales in stores that permit smoking after earlier weighing a ban urged by anti-smoking and civil rights activists.

Lottery officials rejected efforts Wednesday by groups concerned that secondhand smoke prevents people with disabilities or illnesses related to smoke from buying tickets at some locations.

"We are discussing ways we can educate the public about where the nearest smoke-free location might be, such as posting the information on our Web site," commission spokesman Bobby Heith said.

Less than 10 percent of 16,000 lottery retailers surveyed allow smoking, Heith said.

Talk of a ban intensified after Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott issued an opinion that the practice could make the state vulnerable to civil rights lawsuits.

The issue has been smoldering since 2006 when Billy Williams, 77, of Lewisville, complained to lottery officials that he suffered an asthma attack after buying a lottery ticket at a store that allowed smoking. He argued that the federal Americans with Disabilities Act protects him and others from having to buy tickets at smoky stores.

State Sen. Rodney Ellis, a Houston Democrat who asked Abbott for the opinion, said the commission's decision fell short for what he called a "health threat."

Ellis, who has pushed for a statewide ban on smoking in the workplace, said he will take up the issue when the Legislature reconvenes in January.