Last Week Tonight, John Oliver explores state run lotteries, and all of the good fun they are! Gosh, it sounds like a win/win game. You’re not losing money, you’re just contributing to our children’s education. Warm and fuzzy ads encourage us to dream. What would you do with your millions? They even encourage us to base our retirement and children’s education on our winnings. After all, “someone has to win, it might as well be you.” How many times have you heard that one?
How about “You can’t win, if you don’t play?” I’ll bet you know someone who has been playing the same numbers for years, with the certainty that they must come up eventually. With my luck, those numbers would pop up two weeks after my obituary ran in the paper.
Those who are bogged down in dreary reality point out that the chances of winning are ONE in $176 MILLION.
Experts estimate the chances of being hit by lightening – while being eaten by a shark, are greater.
But – you know there are winners. Yes, there are, and they don’t face piddly odds either. Wealthy corporations receive substantial tax reductions which wouldn’t be possible otherwise. As for education, …You may have noticed it’s not faring well.
Taxpayers, who erroneously believe lottery funds go to education, will not tolerate tax hikes for any reason, but the state has learned that people will gladly hand their money over if you play a game with them, and never use the ‘tax’ word.
In 2003, Seattle voted down a proposed tax of 10-cents per cup on espresso ,which would have gone to fund early childhood education. Washingtonians gladly shell out that amount many times over, on the lottery and at casinos – where they don’t even get an overpriced coffee in exchange, and education still goes wanting.
John takes to the bottle to demonstrate a point about states encouraging gambling for their own greed. If – for instance, states sold liquor,claiming the proceeds went to education, they might advertise that every shot of vodka you drink helps our children learn. “We have to ask ourselves, is our children learnin’?” A former President.