The recent headlines and story about two women wrangling over a winning lotto ticket in Cleveland highlights the most critical problem in the current reliance on gaming and casinos as economic saviors for tax depleted areas. When anyone believes that an undeserved big win at Lotto, Blackjack or other gambling enterprise is only the next ticket or flip of the card away, the incentive to work hard and save those dollars for a better future is diminished.
A recent documentary on Channel 9 showed this is not only an American problem; lottery games have sprung up all over South Africa. Preying on the poorest of the poor in the black townships, they promote the dream of a big win as the easy road to wealth and the good life. The reality is, the only ones who are making real money in such an enterprise are the promoters who run the games. “The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo” is fiction, not fact.
The occasional winner doesn’t change the fact that way more losers with broken dreams are out there. This is at least as dangerous a reliance for government funding as Boeing and because of its effect on people’s attitudes about work and earning one’s way, probably more so.
Lake Stevens
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