Is The Lottery A Tax On The Stupid?
Posted 03-01-2009 at 09:27 AM by Jeremy
Since getting into the online gambling affiliate business I have spoken and written about how ridiculous the lottery is on a few different occasions. I don't dislike the lottery because it's gambling, in fact I love that you can spend $1 and have a chance to win $200 million. I mean that's beyond life changing money, that's Barack Obama type loot.
The part that bothers me the most is that the lotteries here in the United States will never address that playing the lottery is hard core gambling at it's finest. The odds of winning are far worse than any casino or table game you will ever play. In fact, you are statistically 6 times more likely to die in a car crash each time you drive to the store to buy your ticket than you are to actually win.
Sure, I may drop $5 on a mega millions ticket every now and again, but I realize it is the equivalent of burning my money. Yet every other time I go into a gas station lately, I get behind some person that thinks they're at pari-muteal window buying daily picks, pick 3's, mid day picks, boxes, trifecta's, etc. What's even more sickening is you see these same people leave and jump into a 1984 rusted out Ford Escort. Allowing individuals like this to buy lottery tickets on such a negative EV game truly is a tax on the stupid.
I suppose it is these people's right to play the lottery, just like it should be my right to play at an online casino or poker room. What is troubling though is how the government promotes the lottery to be everything except gambling.
This morning I was on the Mega Millions website, and they now have a nice little picture widget with some great sayings. Hell, the only thing they don't mention is that the odds of winning are 1 in 175,711,536. And even then, if you take a cash option, they significantly fu** you by decreasing the actual jackpot. Do you think we could get away with putting these types of sentences on the homepage of one of our gambling sites? Or perhaps if someone wins a progressive, we could lop off half their winnings if they want to get paid now versus over 20 years.
Here are some of the reasons we should all be playing the lottery though according to the government ran site.
"Save For Retirement"
"Go Back To School"
"Buy Your Dream House"
"Hit The Links Every Day"
"Take That Family Vacation"
The part that bothers me the most is that the lotteries here in the United States will never address that playing the lottery is hard core gambling at it's finest. The odds of winning are far worse than any casino or table game you will ever play. In fact, you are statistically 6 times more likely to die in a car crash each time you drive to the store to buy your ticket than you are to actually win.
Sure, I may drop $5 on a mega millions ticket every now and again, but I realize it is the equivalent of burning my money. Yet every other time I go into a gas station lately, I get behind some person that thinks they're at pari-muteal window buying daily picks, pick 3's, mid day picks, boxes, trifecta's, etc. What's even more sickening is you see these same people leave and jump into a 1984 rusted out Ford Escort. Allowing individuals like this to buy lottery tickets on such a negative EV game truly is a tax on the stupid.
I suppose it is these people's right to play the lottery, just like it should be my right to play at an online casino or poker room. What is troubling though is how the government promotes the lottery to be everything except gambling.
This morning I was on the Mega Millions website, and they now have a nice little picture widget with some great sayings. Hell, the only thing they don't mention is that the odds of winning are 1 in 175,711,536. And even then, if you take a cash option, they significantly fu** you by decreasing the actual jackpot. Do you think we could get away with putting these types of sentences on the homepage of one of our gambling sites? Or perhaps if someone wins a progressive, we could lop off half their winnings if they want to get paid now versus over 20 years.
Here are some of the reasons we should all be playing the lottery though according to the government ran site.
"Save For Retirement"
"Go Back To School"
"Buy Your Dream House"
"Hit The Links Every Day"
"Take That Family Vacation"
Total Comments 9
Comments
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Used exactly the words in the title for many years... but people got genuinely offended once too often. Now just say that the lottery is a tax on people who are bad at maths...
Cheers, MarkPosted 03-01-2009 at 10:16 AM by Planet Mark
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I agree entirely, and it is the hypocrisy of the politicians that annoys me the most. Here in the UK we have all sides of the house complaining about how bad gambling is and how it needs to be controlled, and even the recent reforms rolled back (they were Tony Blair's and Gordon Brown being a religious type is against gambling, as are the opposition).
Meanwhile the governments own gambling scheme - the national lottery - is promoted everywhere by them as being 'for good causes' (they use the money for schemes that would otherwise come out of tax revenue) and when they set it up they enacted legislation to reduce the allowable age for gambling on the lottery only to 16. Yes, schoolkids can gamble on the lottery!
RayPosted 03-01-2009 at 10:35 AM by RayUK 
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I've often viewed state & government lotteries as a tax on the poor and middle class. Because the very wealthy obviously aren't furiously scratching off tickets or picking numbers, hoping to be lifted out of their mediocre existence.
So it's the poor & middle class who are funding the roads and other projects via this "tax on the poor"
Living in Massachusetts, the number of different scratch tickets available on a regular basis is ridiculous. There are easily 30-40 different types of scratch tickets (ranging from $1 up to $20 each)
And that's before you figure in Keno, MassCash, Megabucks, Daily Numbers, etc.
That being said, the governments see an easy way to cash in, and they're doing so. So can we blame them for profiting, or blame the people who gamble tons of money away every day or week, hoping to hit easy street?
It's kind of like the email spammers in a way. Do you get mad at the spammers, or mad at the idiots who are falling for the schemes, making it profitable for them to continue bombarding our inboxes?
Posted 03-01-2009 at 01:45 PM by PokerNations
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I really don't mind if the government wants to have a lottery. The level of hypocrisy is sick though. Even sicker is how the state/government will never address that the lottery probably turns more people into gambling addicts than any other form of gambling in the world.Posted 03-01-2009 at 07:19 PM by Jeremy
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Originally Posted by Jeremy Even sicker is how the state/government will never address that the lottery probably turns more people into gambling addicts than any other form of gambling in the world.
Well, that money is used for funding state projects, so that makes it ok!
Oy vey do we need less government.
Posted 03-01-2009 at 07:55 PM by PokerNations
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When the lottery began here in the UK it was once a week on a Saturday night live on tv, this made people with little money spend an extra £1 or £2 a week...maybe no big deal.
I figure that once the powers that be saw how much they can actually make from this "good cause" they introduced more of it. Now there's daily play, mid week, thunderball, dream number scratch cards everywhere you go and more!!!
Now people on low incomes spend more on lotteries per week than ever by being progressively hooked and enticed gradually in to gambling every day.
Why didn't i think of it!!Posted 03-03-2009 at 08:18 PM by Aplayer_uk
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Very true. Sad thing is, is that we are still getting taxed in other areas for state funded projects..... must be back up for when someone actually hits the jackpot....And another thing; I know here in Washington/Oregon (I live on the border near portland ) they advertise that it goes toward helping schools yet teachers still seem underpaid and you still hear about levies failing.Originally Posted by PokerNations Well, that money is used for funding state projects, so that makes it ok!
Definitly~Originally Posted by PokerNations Oy vey do we need less government.
Posted 03-04-2009 at 10:50 AM by Matt Geer
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State lottery in Germany pays out app. 40% in prizes, a big part of the rest goes into administrative costs (a big part of which are nice 6-figure yearly salaries for ex-politicians parked in comfy jobs as chairmen).
There is a simple description when you compare the govt's attitude vs gambling: double standards (or morale).Posted 03-06-2009 at 10:36 AM by Catfish
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Yup, they always have those "administrative fees" to put their friends into lucrative positions of wealth at the expense of the masses. Typical government.Originally Posted by Catfish State lottery in Germany pays out app. 40% in prizes, a big part of the rest goes into administrative costs (a big part of which are nice 6-figure yearly salaries for ex-politicians parked in comfy jobs as chairmen).
There is a simple description when you compare the govt's attitude vs gambling: double standards (or morale).
Posted 03-06-2009 at 10:51 AM by PokerNations
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