Tennessee lawmakers predicted the state lottery will use up most of the funds earmarked for college scholarships by 2024. The revenue shortfall is prompting lawmakers to look for new ways to generate lottery revenues. Translation: the state needs its residents to gamble away more of their money in order to keep its promise.
Tennessee joins other states that have been unable to uphold commitments made from lottery revenues. Georgia recently scaled back the scholarship money it contributes toward scholarships. The scholarship programs were once highly touted in states. Beyond being a regressive tax, the shortfall demonstartes that lotteries are not a sustainable way to fund government programs. Adding more lottery games in order to take more money from residents is hardly the answer to this problem.
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"Here we are, protected, free to make our profits . . . ninety miles away, in partnership with a friendly government."
— Hyman Roth, The Godfather Part II
See the 60 Minutes report on how more and more states have become addicted to gambling as a source of revenue. In the report, former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell tried to defend the explosion of state gambling by lashing out at correspondent Leslie Stahl. WATCH
"It's a terrible way to raise money. It's a tax on ignorance. . . . I don't like the idea of the government depending, for certain portions of its revenue, on hoodwinking citizens."
— Warren Buffett
There was a time when elected officials understood the downsides of casinos. Giants like New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia launched campaigns to root out gambling as seen here.
Are Casinos Like Cocaine for the Brain? A discussion on the still unaddressed public health and ethical consequences of expanding casino gambling in New York State.
"Where the Lottery was concerned, even people who could barely read and write seemed capable of intricate calculations and staggering feats of memory. Winston had nothing to do with the runnning of the Lottery, which was managed by the Ministry of Plenty, but he was aware . . . that the prizes were largely imaginary."
George Orwell's 1984
Paul Davies is the editor of www.GetGovernmentOutofGambling.org and the Maggie Walker Fellow at the Institute for American Values.
Tennessee lawmakers predicted the state lottery will use up most of the funds earmarked for college scholarships by 2024. The revenue shortfall is prompting lawmakers to look for new ways to generate lottery revenues. Translation: the state needs its residents to gamble away more of their money in order to keep its promise.
