Reply #65: Agreed - but see the post above yours

[Robb]

...Most people have little idea where lottery funds go. And yes, they buy the tickets of their own volition -- but it's no different than anything else where there's no infrastructure in place to educate them, fully, so they can make an informed decision.

I use the word "infrastructure" quite deliberately. The lottery is a government-run program. It's a clever way of getting around laws put in place to explain how public funds are collected and distributed.

Imagine this: suppose there's a public transit line that the state decided needed to be extended. And the money was to collected through a taxing structure where people with the least extra cash would be taxed the highest. You don't have to contribute, but if you do you get a 1 in 80,000,000 chance to win a prize.

That hypothetical tax, in Colorado for example, would have to pass at the ballot box. And state laws would require a full disclosure, mailed to every voter and advertised with state dollars to a set degree, how that money would be allocated, what the structure of the tax would be -- who would pay the most and least -- and an explanation, required by statute, of what 80 million to 1 actually means.

The "blue book" sent to voters is of course incomplete, and the advertising doesn't reach everyone, but it's a start. Imagine how voting would be without even the minimum currently required to educate voters.

A tax I describe above would never pass at the ballot box, even with the minimal education efforts already required. Much easier to pass sweeping lottery legislation, which is what many states have done.

There's no denying it's fun to buy a ticket and imagine what you'd do with the money -- lord knows I've done it. And certainly people can spend money in worse ways. I'm just not fully convinced it should be a state-run program. It doesn't seem to me that's what government's for.