I have a problem with state lotteries. Every since I moved into the high tech and thrilling world of convenience store clerk I have brought in tens of thousands of dollars for the Texas Lottery. Before this job I was neither for or against ti but now I oppose it strongly. Everyday I see people with no money come in and spend half their pay check on scratch off tickets and Lotto. They bring back what little they win to buy more. It is not unusual to see a parent tell a kid to put their snack back so they can buy a dollar ticket. Older people brake my heart the most.
I have always been a big personal freedom guy. It’s your damn money do what you want with it but should the state be involved in it? I see it as the government actively praying on people. Texas has a game called Pick 3. It’s a twice a day drawing where you pick 3 numbers. When you buy it you have a ton of options on how to play it. It’s gambling in it’s purest form. It allows you customize the game so you think you have a strategy. It’s our top seller and what people spend the most money on. These people are addicted and the state feeds it taking in more money and giving out less.
The big lie is that all profit goes to education but with the millions brought in every year Texas schools still scream that they are supposedly under funded.
Having said that, I’ll throw a couple of $'s at it every couple of weeks. Hey, I’m not gonna win, but it gives me the right to dream for a couple of days!
IIRC in “1984” the government used the lottery (the “numbers”) as a means to mollify the proles – give them some pipe dream and they won’t focus on how miserable their lives are and then start to make trouble.
However, my college education was paid for by state lottery. Honestly, your post makes me feel a bit guilty about it. Growing up my dad would occasionally buy a lottery ticket and would say to me, " if you gamble you have to be willing to flush that money down the toilet and never see it again." I just assumed most people were aware of this concept, but am fully aware that some people have gambling adicitions. There are many things in society that people use to harm themselves, some legal some not, lottery, smoking, drinking, drugs, sex, guns, gangs, food, and the list goes on forever. Is it possible that the people you see spending money they don’t have on the lottery might spend that same money in another poor way if the lottery didn’t exist? At least the lottery has a positive flip side by financing education. If I had not received a scholarship from lottery money I may not have gone to college and if I had I would be in debt for awhile. Just out of curiosity what percentage of lottery buyers that you come in contact with would you say are spending money they don’t have.
I live in a state with both the State Lottery and we have legalized gambling. This gambling which started out as River Boat crusie, then went dockside with only a requirement that the boat cruise once a year to where now land based casinos have now been legalized. I’m watching one here being built.
To back up your claim, I watched a young couple put $5 of gas in the car and then pick up some basic groceries. Milk, lunchmeat, bread and cereal. They then proceeded to buy one of every scratch ticket. Nearly $45 worth. (Some are $3 and $5 dollar tickets) They came up monies short to pay the whole bill so they put the milk and cereal back. He argued that they could come back in and purchase those items after they scratched theses tickets. They went out to the car, scratched the tickets and bought more with what they had won…no milk or cereal.
We watched them make two more trips. I never did see them buy the milk and cereal though.
It is, but if we stopped everything the government is doing that “Preys” on people, we’d have to shut it down. In a sense the government exists TO prey on it’s citizens. Otherwise we would simply switch to a “User” tax on everything which many people simply couldn’t afford.
Your story mirrors what is going on in KY. We have a lottery, and it was supposed to cure all ills. We also have gambling, but limited to horse racing. Several years back, Indiana legalized riverboat gambling. If you know your geography, you know that in Louisville you could damn near hit a golf ball across the Ohio River to Indiana. A significant, if not the vast majoirty, of the revenues for the Caesar’s casino come from Louisville residents. First the boats had to push away, and you had to be there at designated times to make a “cruise”. Then that requirement went away.
After seeing how much the IN casinos made, Churchill Downs and the rest of KY racing began clamoring for video poker and the like for the racetracks. They claimed they needed the extra revenue to boost purses to compete with tracks like Mountaineer in W. Va. who had legalized casino gambling at their facilities. Because these area tracks were offering much higher purses, historically KY trainers were moving their tack to W Va and surrounding states. This issue should have been settled years ago, but Churchill is just a miserable corporate partner with the community.
Now, our newly elected Gov who vowed not to raise taxes proposed a constitutional amendment legalizing casino gambling and building as many as 12 casinos across the state. He’s spouting the same arguments that lottery proponents did 20 or so years ago, saying it will benefit education, the poor, etc. Lottery cured none of those ills back then, and gambling revenues won’t cure them now, so long at the taxx dollars flow to our state government. Just for kicks, here is the proposed language for the ballot from the Gov:
*“Are you in favor of increasing state financial support for elementary and secondary education, expanding health care for senior citizens, children and others, support for local governments, and combating drug and alcohol abuse and other important programs by permitting the General Assembly to authorize up to five casinos subject to approval of the voters in the city or county where the casino is located; and up to seven casino licenses for existing horse racing associations, all of which will be subject to the approval of a state agency created to oversee casino gaming?” *
**
How could you say no to that?!?!?
The problem is it’s us thats bailing them out when they’re so far gone into debt.
The people I know here at work that are using their CC to pay the light bill because they blew an entire paycheck on the boat is astounding. These are people making 60 - 100k/year and not including thier spouses incomes.
My only solution so far is to sell my military retirement (there’s places that do this) when the time comes, max all credit cards (to the tune of about $200k by then), and skip town. I’ll change my name to Andres and grow coffee someplace near the equator…
There are many things in society that people use to harm themselves, some legal some not, lottery, smoking, drinking, drugs, sex, guns, gangs, food, and the list goes on forever.
Exactly! It’s not the lottery forcing these people to play, it’s these people looking for ways to waster their money. I’ll give you that some, I’m guessing a small portion, would actually not spend their money if they didn’t gamble. However most would simply find a new vise.
In 2007 the average personal “Savings” rate for the ENTIRE US was negative. People on average spent more than they made. If it’s not gambling, its HD TV’s or carbon fiber bikes.
The fact that the government is getting their cut seems specious to me as they’re getting their cut ALL OVER the place.
I play the lotto maybe once a year, to the tune of $5, and only if it gets above $100 million bucks or so.
Yeah, the lotto was supposed to solve all of Indiana’s money problems, but now we have even more money problems and we already have casinos, horse tracks, riverboats, etc. So what’s next?
Lotteries are for people who aren’t good at math. On the positive side, Colorado lotteries have paid back for over $1.7 billion since 1983 to pay for parks, open space, and conservation projects. I thank those people every day on my trail runs.
I hear Tibbs. I worked as a clerk while attending college, and “scratchers” can be summed up like this “Spend $100 to brag that you won $20.”
It’s like peopple completely forget how much they “lose” and only remember their “big” winners (big as in $10 or $20). The problem with these folks is even when they win $5-$40 bucks … they just trade it back in for more tickets until they have none. MOst of them don;t even “play” the game on the scratcher, they just scratch off the areas where you can see the 3 leters that tell the clerk what they’ve won (fre=free, one=one, fiv-five, twy = twenty, etc).
It really is unfortunate because it’s really is unfortunate, because it is mostly (if not “only”) the low-income folks that play the scratchers (and pick 3). I’d routinely see people (at the first of the month), come in buy $100 worth of tickets, spend an hour at the side of the counter “scratchin”, turn in their winnings for more tickets, repeat, repeat, and then go home with nothing.
I just don’t get it. If they took that $100/month and saved it, they’d have 1200 bucks a year in the bank … and that’s a helluva lot more than they’re going to win with scratchers.
You really do have to be concerned that our government is IN “the gambling business”.
As a side, the % of our state lottery that goes toward education is continually shrinking. It happens gradually, y’know … so no one will notice.
The state lottery makes me very sad. The majority of the money comes in from the poor towns, but gets distributed across the board. And the people paying it would raise Hell if you ever tried to take it away.
We have a little corner store down the street that sells beer/wine and lottery tickets. The owner told me if it wasn’t for the lottery tickets, he couldn’t even come close to staying in business.
The transaction generally goes like this: Customer walks up to counter with single tall boy Budweiser can, asks for a pack of smokes, and then apparently happens to notice the giant wall of tickets and says “Oh, and by the way, why don’t you throw on a couple of number 3s, 1 number 5, and, hmm, how…about…2 of the number 8s…no, not that one, the one below. My cousin’s stepsister’s son won big with those last week.”
The worst is if you try to show a “scratcher” the math involved. And it is true, they are the biggest liars that have ever walked when it comes to accounting for their wins/losses. Now, I just thank them for keeping my taxes “low”. I’ve offered that if they give me the $20/week they spend on tickets, I’ll guarantee them $1000 at the end of the year, or $10,000 at the end of 10 years, but they don’t like those odds.
I totally disagree with you. Fellow Texan and also worked in the convenience store business back in college.
Stupid people will always do stupid things with their money. If its not a lottery ticket, it will be a 40 oz’er or cigarettes or whatever. Hell, I remember seeing buttloads of “poor” people come in and buy groceries at the fricking convenience store. Even though the prices were probably close to twice as high as the nearby grocery store. On top of that, many were driving piece of shit cars with high dollars rims, etc. So in the end they are going to throw their money away on crap regardless.
My problem isn’t gambling. I am a do what you want kinda guy. It’s the fact the government is involved. The idea that the government takes advantage of a real problem but acts like it’s no big deal. The worst part of it is we let them. We elect the asses into office never hold them accountable and never keep track with what they are doing. The lotto is supposed to be about education but with all the money the lottery bring in our schools are still supposedly under funded.
open casinos, sure: we have them in canada, and they make bags of tax revenue. but they cost us lots in social problems, too. my solution will sound terribly elitist, but,
institute a dress code
and/or
only allow tourists from out-of-state/province/country to gamble there.
that way, only people who can ‘afford’ (for whatever reason) to travel will be using the casino. further, they’re more likely to only be using temporarily (ie., while they’re in town) AND, they take their social problems back home with them when they leave.
as for lotteries. . . tough call. similar to, but not as bad as, cigarettes and booze here in canada - we tax the shit out of them, and that pays real dividends, but ‘net,’ i think they’re costing the system.
