Do state governments have a gambling addiction? – CSMonitor.com Tennessee does!
Do state governments have a gambling addiction? – CSMonitor.com.
You may read this and say, what gambling? My answer is that our lottery is gambling and it falls into the same group as other types of gambling.
This article points out many of the common “positives” of gambling, but it also shows how the impact of spending on gambling is disproportionately an impact on the less off and not the more affluent. That has been my issue since we sold the first ticket and gave the first lottery scholarship.
I hear many talking about how government redistributes income. Gambling is the ultimate slap to the poor and less affluent. The advertising makes such a strong appeal to those who are desperate enough to feel that they can “get rich quick” and the odds are overwhelmingly against them. Even if they do win there are many other studies that show the benefits of winning are short lived.
I am enclosing a quote below from a business professor at the University of Illinois. I agree with him 100%:
There are more immediate drawbacks to gambling, which critics say disproportionately hurts the less-well-off. The vast sums spent on legalized gambling – more than $90 billion a year, or about nine times Hollywood’s annual box office receipts – would galvanize the flagging economy if used more efficiently, says John Kindt, a business professor at the University of Illinois.
"That’s lost consumer activity that’s not buying food, clothing, cars, refrigerators, and so on," Mr. Kindt says. Because of economic multipliers – the effects of consumer spending flowing through the economy – every $100,000 spent in slot machines results in $300,000 in economic losses, Kindt claims.
If gambling is the answer, I shudder to think what the question might have been.
