Do State Lotteries Bilk The Poor?

Rare $B paydays aside, expert claims state lotteries are “predatory con” fleecing the poor based on misleading ads or outright lies. One worker spent hundreds on losing tix per wk for 30 yrs, could’ve retired as millionaire?

So claims Les Bernal, national director of DC-based Stop Predatory Gambling. He told Fox News in sum: “Through its advertising & marketing of lotteries, state gov’ts have turned a nation of small earners – who could be small [but sure] savers – into a nation of habitual gamblers.” We’ve all seen the many lottery sales outlets in inner city communities urging folks to play the lottery with dreams of financial freedom while middle class suburbanites are told in various media pitches how the state-run gambling funds Jack and Jill’s schools. Yet, the reality is that “over the next eight years, the American people are [collectively] going to lose more than $1 trillion of personal wealth to commercialized gambling, at least half of which is being extracted by state lotteries.”

Relying on others’ desperation, Bernal said, is another common marketing ploy. “If you’re someone who just lost their job, or you’re trying to pay your rent, or you need money to pay a large medical bill, state lotteries attempt to position themselves as the answer – exploiting the financial desperation of our fellow citizens.” Not that state lotteries seem to care that their $10, $50 & $100 “scratch tickets” are greatly stacked in favor of the poor buyers instantly losing $10, $50 or $100 they need. Bernal told of one woman who “had a steady job with a decent wage & for over 30 yrs spent several hundred dollars a week on lottery tickets … If she had put all the money she lost on gov’t lottery tickets & invested it in a Standard & Poor’s 500 Index Fund, she would be a millionaire today.” Or, just as broke, only a conned market player?

Davd Soul