Betting on the Lottery
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2012-04-05/betting-lottery
Americans spent $1.5 billion in the frenzy over last week’s Mega Millions lottery. When the dust cleared there were three winning tickets. Forty-three states, the District of Columbia and the US Virgin Islands participate in the lottery as well as other forms of legalized gambling. With ever tightening budgets, this revenue stream seems to be recession proof. The director of Maryland’s lottery and a past lottery winner talk about their experiences good and bad. Guest host Tom Gelten and the panel discuss what the long-shot games of chance mean for ticket buyers and state budgets.
Guests
Stephen Martino
Maryland Lottery Director
Sandra Hayes
won the Powerball lottery in 2006, author of "How Winning the Lottery Changed My Life."
Philip Joyce
professor of Management, Finance and Leadership at the University of Maryland School of Public Policy
Robert Ward
deputy director of the Rockefeller Institute of Government, heads the Institute's State and Local Government Finance research.
Comments
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Happy faces being presented an over-sized check keep the gullible from considering the bazillions of fools who lost.
Does lottery fever creep into our national conscience and keep us from facing economic reality?
Does the prospect of winning big or hitting the jackpot entice many into a sort of gambling mentality where wishful thinking and fantasy supplant hard work, reasonable expectation, and commitment to build over the long haul?
People lining up to give money to their states reminds me of a homily I once heard about the story of the loaves and the fishes, to wit, the real miracle was not that the loaves and fishes multiplied but that the people in the crowd pulled their own loaves and fishes from under their cloaks where they had been hiding them. We moan and groan about how we can't afford taxes but with the right incentive we are willing to give even more.
Ahh lotteries a tax on people that are bad at math. Well it helps keep the taxes slightly lower for the rest of us so I'm all for it. Let the fools foot the bill.
Please save your judgmental, pejorative analysis for some other place. I played, put in $10, didn't expect to win,and didn't. But the fun of fantasizing about winning was better than any movie, book, or video game. For a majority of the people playing the lottery is entertainment, and even a social event. How many people got into a lottery pool at work or in neighborhoods and actually talked to each other about what they would do if they won and probably about other things too.
Is there a group of people that are betting more than they can afford? Absolutely, and I don't have a solution for that, there are always a subset of the group that takes something too far, but we don't ban alcohol because some people are alcoholics. We help those people deal with their propensity to overindulge with care and compassion, not judgement and shame.
I never lost my ability to face "economic reality". I knew that on Saturday morning I would wake up and have the same issues (working hard, building a future based on that hard work, and meeting my financial obligations) I dealt with on Friday morning, don't insult my intelligence by assuming otherwise because I bought some lottery tickets
The only thing that bothers me is that it's OK for the government to be bookie and not private citizens, that's immoral. I really don't care except when I have to wait in line because some idiot is buying fifty lottery tickets in front of me.
Oh, puhleez.
Gambling is just one of many social issues that needs to be legalized. Yes there will be individuals that will harm themselves by gambling. However I don't believe it is the governments job to decide how i spend my money on products or entertainment that is not causing harm to others. It seems that many of similar social issues i.e drugs and prostitution, are being demonized based on the moral teachings of Christianity.
The Lotteries will always be with us, just as the poor. We use it as a 'sop', as 'hope' false as it is, in the New Regency , Old Dominion. The Tobacco Settlement, was treated as lottery winnings here in Virginia, and the revelers partied and danced, while if you bought patches and called the 800 number, the people there couldn't believe you couldn't get free patches at the health dept. Call the health dept, and wait and wait. They never 'heard of such a thing,' either.
Meanwhile the mounted classes, instead of duty to warn, took on and approved of marauding, all under a white aura, of sweetness and light.
The lotteries, like the poor will always be with us. Why, those poor need to be tything to the state, and their sighs and groans, are blessed, I tell you. Blessed are they.
Sic semper tyranus, Commonwealth of Virginia.
p.s. the poor always want to do their share. it would be cruel to take this hope from them. And the gleanings we take, why that is our just desserts for turning our heads their way occasionally, to see how 'profitable the ways of the Lord are.' Sigh......
I win every time. I fill out the form with my favorite number then do NOT buy a lottery ticket. When that number comes up I "win" two dollars. And to increase my "winnings" I pick the power play for another dollar. So "winning" $6 each week or more if I do both Mega and Powerball $12 times 52 weeks my "winnings" equal over $600 after tax dollars.
Lotteries are tax-regressive and contribute to the already ridiculous wealth gap. Why not gamble on good social investments?
At least in California with its typical progressive policies, 34% goes to the classroom.
So the poor give the preacher 10% or more to buy their way to heaven and others spend money to buy heaven here on earth. It is their choice to waste their money on any fantasy they wish. Get the government out of the way.
Or in this case let the government help them along. Lottery fantasies are part of the "bread and circus game" every empire depends upon to maintain stability.
When I heard how large the lottery had grown, I went to buy a ticket. I did not know I had to have cash to buy one. Since I never carry cash, I guess I will not get to participate.
Regarding the Texas Lottery, the state legislature made it very clear in the proposed law, when it passed, and when the lottery started, that the revenue was NOT dedicated to public school. Despite Texas officials insisting that the money wasn't earmarked for our schools, the street-level misinformation kept circulating, to the extent that even Barbara Bush was quoted as saying the money was reserved for education.
Here in Texas. they sold the lottery as a funding source for education, however subsequent legislatures decided to redirect the funds to the general fund. This last session all but decimated the education system in Texas.
They totally lied to the people.
People believe that they could win, that is why they play.
Great comment (Mike S above) and I don't disagree.
But casinos make 80% of their revenue from 5% of their customers - and I imagine this math applies to lotteries as well.
What's worrisome is the enticement - and state participation in this enticement that's all wrong to begin with.
Why can't we tax up front and straight out? Why does the state need to trick people into giving it money using the lure of the jackpot as bait? How in the world can this be a right step towards a better future?
It is not a tax on stupidity or on the inability to do maths---look at all the engineers gambling away at any Las Vegas COMDEX to see otherwise.
It's a tax on not completely internalising statistics, which state is very easy to retain, given that back on the Serengeti very little were truly random...and on the inability, short-term or long-term, true or perceived, to substantively change your life by your own efforts...and on the dopamine hit that most people get when, for a few moments (or hours) something great might happen.
Of course, one could contemplate being wealthy without the aid of a lottery ticket, and stand only very, very,...,very slightly less chance of getting rich than if one had bought one, but on the other hand: pixels (and in the past, paper) are not flesh, but pornography exists precisely because our narrative instincts often need some kind of prompting.
(I don't gamble, but have, and so am less likely to consider those who do to be some lesser order of being...that's a good thing about one's own faults, even past: they stimulate the tendency toward rachmones.)
The lottery tax is not voluntary any more than the tax on beer is voluntary. If you want to play the lottery, you have to pay the lottery tax. If you want to buy beer, you have to pay the beer tax.
Some states even require all beer to be purchased directly from the state, just like states do for all lottery tickets.
When I was a kid back in the early 60's in High School, I lived in Panama. I had never heard of Lotteries, but they had a'Lottery Nationale" National Lottery. I noticed that most of the people who were standing in line to buy Lottery Tickets were poor and had no shoes.
They also lived in homes, lit at night with one light in a one room cardboard covered shack. You could see lots of people through the slits in the cardboard.
Panama, at that time had a 1% Rich, 15% Middle Class, and a huge 84% Poor. I remember a man knocking on our door, who was begging for food and adding "it is better to beg than to steal". The police were National Guard members with M1 Carbines and when someone did steal, it was a 'Shoot first"policy and the body of the supposed thief on the front page, shot dead in the gutter for allegedly stealing.
I never forgot that experience.
.
I worked in the Financial Services Industry helping average people plan for Retirement with systematic savings and planning.
When the Lotteries were introduced that I witnessed in Third World Countries, I watched as people reduced Savings and started Gambling.
As one fellow put it as he bought $500 in Power Ball Tickets, the "Lottery is my Retirement plan".
The low Marginal Tax rate and the pressure on services and the Wealthy who take 23% of the GDP are very happy to see Lotteries as they do not want to see the tax rates of the 50's at 91%.
With the Lottery, the Tribal Gaming, Casinos, and Las Vegas, we are falling into the Third World Trap mentality. Gambling is not a good long term solution to solving financial problems.
Judging from the average 65 year old with only $55,000 saved up to supplement their Social Security with half of the 65 year olds disabled and unable to work full time, they have no choice.
We need to stop this Lottery madness, unless we want to copy the 1% Rich, 15% Middle Class, and 84% poor that I witnessed as a kid in Panama.
Abraham Lincoln supposedly stated once that "God must love the poor, for he created so many of them". Abe was probably wrong. God never created anyone poor. He didn't need to. His most singlular creation, human beings, did it for him. And from the tone of some in this forum, they seem to be doing their bit to ensure that the poor stay that way.
I think 1% of Lottery revenue go to education.
The same "For Education" ruse was used to introduce Sales taxes to states that did not have one.
In the Meantime, the Rich and 1% pay lower, and lower, and lower tax rates taking more, and more, and more of the wealth of America.
But if you take away their money, you take away what is most important to them. The power to force the 99% to do their bidding!