Heck, I didn’t know we had that much money in the whole state! 
The lottery, I am convinced, is one of the most destructive forces in the war on poverty. It’s ironic that it hurts people so much, but every once in a while, you will see the person who wins it on the news and in the papers, but that person does not represent 99.999999999999% (exact figure) of those who are involved in this kind of gambling.
I agree. Our state, which has held out against lotteries all these years, started one, day before yesterday. A sad day in history. They got it passed by playing the old Texas/Oklahoma rivalry for all it’s worth. They claimed Texas was getting all the lottery money Oklahoma could be having.
It will be the children of the people who break their foodstamps, for change to buy tickets, that suffer.
With every word of this I agree. It’s such a depressing thing to see and to live through.
I actually approve of lotteries, in a way.
Not for all the “it’s for the children/schools/whatever” malarky. Or because it’s a good deal (it’s not - most state lotteries only pay out about 50% of the money they take in.) Or that it’s the best revenue source I can think of for whatever purpose the tax money is earmarked to fund.
But because it’s one of the few truly voluntary taxes out there. Don’t like it? Don’t play. I wish I had that option on sales taxes, and property taxes, and income taxes, and social security taxes, and car registration . . . you get the idea. Viewed in that light, a voluntary tax on stupidity seems a lot less objectionable. And - unless the payout is greater than the odds against winning - a “stupidity tax” is exactly what it is.
Ever been to Las Vegas, or Reno, or Atlantic City? The big casinos aren’t funded by losing. And most casinos offer FAR better odds than your typical state lottery.
I’ll admit to buying an occasional lottery ticket, when the payout matches or exceeds the odds against winning. But I doubt my total “investment” exceeds $20 a year, if that. I figure the amusement value (and the unlikely chance that I might win) doesn’t make it too bad a deal.
However - anybody who makes a practice of buying tickets regularly, expecting to win, might as well be shoving the money down a rathole. Sad and kind of stupid? Undoubtedly. But it’s their choice and their money, not anyone else’s.
While I agree with this much, I also know that it’s not this simple in the way poverty and gambling (and the lottery is gambling) work together and feed on one another.
Then collect 50% back in “taxes”. How stupid is that.
Not that ALL of the money comes from this source, but a large enough portion does to make it a concern. That is MY money they are spending then.
I wish people (myself included) would not get so obsessive and caught up over money. “Money is the root of all evil” sounds more and more plausible every day.
You don’t. Half of it probably came from Utahns who drove up to buy a ticket. I pitch in when a friend travels to Idaho to buy tickets a few times a year and, like DCrom, probably spend about $20 a year on them. And the reason I do it is completely dumb: I ask myself, “What if I don’t pitch in this time and they win?!?” So I toss in my $5.
I have no idea where lottery money goes. I do know where it doesn’t go (at least in California): to education. I believe I posted this some time ago on the board, but when I lived in California, I got a monthly newsletter from my daughter’s elementary school which said, among other news items, that their school had received $10 per student from the lottery. Whoop-de-do.
Susan
It would be really hypocritical of me to criticize the lottory as the revenues of the GA state lottory have paid my tuition for the past three and a half years and will next semester too, but I see the problems with it.
The really sad thing about this scholarship I’m on is that it actually helps kids in richer areas more than poor kids because rich kids get a better education, better grades, and are more likely to go to college and keep the B average needed to keep the scholarship.
I’m not rich, but I’m damn lucky.
It’s very important that you (and I) can recognize that, though. A lot of people don’t even recognize it at all.
Sorry, I don’t agree. A lottery ticket is incredibly inexpensive, and a lot of people win smaller prizes, even if they don’t win the great big prize. If a $2 ticket gives someone a chance to win, even at astronomical odds, its still better than no chance to win at all. I think its niggardly to deny someone even this small glimmer of a chance at winning.
As to the food stamps saga, the people who would cash these in to buy lottery tickets would be just as likely to cash it in and waste the money on something worse in the absence of the lottery. Saying that the presence of the lottery creates the urge to throw money away is not realistic. People who throw money away will do so whether the lottery is there or not. If there were no lottery, can you honestly say that such a person would never cash their foodstamps and waste the money anyway? Of course not.
djm
Did you ever tell me if you wanted that cookie? I haven’t eaten it yet…but I’ll warn you that the flour I made it with was bought with foodstamps…
Actually, it’s more accurately translated “the pursuit of money is the root of all evil”. That to me makes it even worse. Money in of itself is not a total evil (for it is a necessity, which is unfortunate). It is our pursuit of it (above all else) that makes it evil.
Anyway, back to your regularly scheduled thread 
You are very wise to recognize that and point it out, for you are correct.
Seems a very expensive cookie. I’m a muff … er .. muffin man, myself. 
djm
I threaten no-one, and have no desire to hurt anyone. Where did you get such a strange idea?
djm
I didn’t. 
I can agree with Sam, but I am not saying anything against the GA lottery, for it paid “IN FULL” my Biology degree, enabling me to get to where I am now. I am grateful.
It funded preschool for my two youngest, as well. In fact, not just an extra 10 bucks per child either. There was an enormous surplus of supplies for the kids in our school district, extra $$ to employ teacher aides, fund field trips, get buses, etc. And isn’t PEACH funded by the GA lottery as well? (Not sure)
The GA lottery at least gives folks the HOPE that if they work hard, they can achieve their goals. ANYONE. It would be much worse if one worked really hard to make the grade to get into an institute of higher learning, and then not be able to afford to go at all. I have a hard time believing that if anyone tries, they can’t maintain a B average (flame away) ~ I did it as a geographically single mom of 4 small boys, without too much difficulty. And that’s after being out of school for over 20 years. And in Georgia, if you don’t quite make it one semester or quarter, but you do earn B average the next, the grant is reinstituted.
Say what you will about the lottery, people are people, and will do with their money/resources what they will.
A person at my work was recently approached in a local supermarket by someone with foodstamps just the other night. Wanted to sell them to her 2 for 1 for cash. Who knows what he intended to buy? So it isn’t just about the lottery.
And people do win.
I guess if I “only” won half of 300 mill, and paid 50% tax on the remainder, I wouldn’t be too darn sad.
M
300million? I will not buy a ticket until it means something! One billion or nothing. Who can live on something less?