One Piece of Legislation The General Assembly Should Pass . . .
has not been written yet.
Someone needs to file a bill that does the following, and keep in mind that I am neither a lawyer nor a legislator, so the wording would surely be a bit different and probably 500 times longer than what I am about to write.
Prohibit the Kentucky Lottery Corporation or any associated entity from marketing or advertising every game that it operates - no billboards, print ads, radio ads, television ads, internet ads, etc. Only a small section of newspaper could be used to print, in a small font, the winning numbers.
Here's why.
1) Proposals to start the KY lottery, and now expanded gambling, were and are so heavily based on this helplessness theory that states that people are going to do it anyway, so we (the state, the legislators, whatever) might as well make a few dollars off of that activity and try to do some good works with it.
First off, this is akin to the bad parents who host, or allow their kids to host, drinking and drugging parties at the parents' homes. The parents often say, "Well, I just think that the kids are going to drink anyway, so they might as well do it here where they're safe." That's just terrible logic, lazy parenting, and lazy governance.
If the helplessness theory is correct, people do not need extra enticement in the form of advertising to be convinced to gamble. If "people are going to do it anyway," the Kentucky Lottery Corporation does not need to advertise.
Advertising is a way to get people to do what you want them to do. That's why politicians buy advertisements around election time - to get people to vote for them. That's why advertising companies develop techniques, conduct market research, etc. They get paid big bucks to generate even bigger bucks for their clients. If "people are going to do it anyway," the Kentucky Lottery Corporation is pointlessly wasting revenue. The money they spend on advertising could and should be spent on "education," without causing a drop in revenue generated by the lottery because of the Law of Helplessness.
2) It is inherently wrong for the government to profit off of its citizens' stupidity and misfortune. That is what is happening with lottery generated dollars. A lot of people play. Very few are lucky. Most are unlucky. For every person who is not lucky, the state benefits. That is just wrong. The state has no morals because it has no conscience, however legislators should not allow the government that they help operate to anticipate people's misfortune in a game owned and operate by the KLC with a plan to redistribute the money they lost playing that game. This is obviously quite different from insurance. The state should encourage people to be wise with their money, not give it to the government so the government can give a little bit of it back to them through social programs, give some of it to themselves and other bureaucrats, and give some of it to others.
3) The lottery could be decribed as being very similar to a regressive tax. It hurts poor people more than it does rich people. Poor people play more often than middle class or higher (financially speaking) people. A poor person who spends $50 per year on lottery tickets, the coveted scratch-offs, etc. on a $25,000 a year salary spends .200% of their income on lottery tickets, presumably trying to get rich but actually just giving more money to the government and essentially paying higher taxes. A person who makes $60,000 a year and spends $50 on tickets only pays an additional .083% of their income to the government, although it should be recognized that they are doing so voluntarily but in a game that they are encouraged to play by KLC advertising - that's what we are trying to change. But poor people are more inclined to play this game, and right now the KLC is encouraging them to do so even though they are already poor and getting poorer playing the lottery.
4) Kind of a side note. The holiday themed lottery advertising is particularly revolting. For a state owned and operated corporation to advertise so that it may benefit from people's stupidity and misfortune is terrible. However, to encourage people to buy scratch-offs for their loved ones as Christmas presents is simply beyond asinine. This kind of stuff has to stop. Besides, I didn't see any ads telling people to get scratch-offs for their Jewish loved ones during Hanukkah. Why is the Kentucky Lottery Corporation discriminating like that, based on religious preference? (Hint: tongue in cheek)
If people didn't spend their money on lottery tickets, they would probably buy things and pay sales taxes, so the state is not going to lose that much money. However, I am not even proposing that anyone propose a bill closing down the lottery. All that needs to be done is to prohibit the KLC from advertising.
Someone needs to file a bill that does the following, and keep in mind that I am neither a lawyer nor a legislator, so the wording would surely be a bit different and probably 500 times longer than what I am about to write.
Prohibit the Kentucky Lottery Corporation or any associated entity from marketing or advertising every game that it operates - no billboards, print ads, radio ads, television ads, internet ads, etc. Only a small section of newspaper could be used to print, in a small font, the winning numbers.
Here's why.
1) Proposals to start the KY lottery, and now expanded gambling, were and are so heavily based on this helplessness theory that states that people are going to do it anyway, so we (the state, the legislators, whatever) might as well make a few dollars off of that activity and try to do some good works with it.
First off, this is akin to the bad parents who host, or allow their kids to host, drinking and drugging parties at the parents' homes. The parents often say, "Well, I just think that the kids are going to drink anyway, so they might as well do it here where they're safe." That's just terrible logic, lazy parenting, and lazy governance.
If the helplessness theory is correct, people do not need extra enticement in the form of advertising to be convinced to gamble. If "people are going to do it anyway," the Kentucky Lottery Corporation does not need to advertise.
Advertising is a way to get people to do what you want them to do. That's why politicians buy advertisements around election time - to get people to vote for them. That's why advertising companies develop techniques, conduct market research, etc. They get paid big bucks to generate even bigger bucks for their clients. If "people are going to do it anyway," the Kentucky Lottery Corporation is pointlessly wasting revenue. The money they spend on advertising could and should be spent on "education," without causing a drop in revenue generated by the lottery because of the Law of Helplessness.
2) It is inherently wrong for the government to profit off of its citizens' stupidity and misfortune. That is what is happening with lottery generated dollars. A lot of people play. Very few are lucky. Most are unlucky. For every person who is not lucky, the state benefits. That is just wrong. The state has no morals because it has no conscience, however legislators should not allow the government that they help operate to anticipate people's misfortune in a game owned and operate by the KLC with a plan to redistribute the money they lost playing that game. This is obviously quite different from insurance. The state should encourage people to be wise with their money, not give it to the government so the government can give a little bit of it back to them through social programs, give some of it to themselves and other bureaucrats, and give some of it to others.
3) The lottery could be decribed as being very similar to a regressive tax. It hurts poor people more than it does rich people. Poor people play more often than middle class or higher (financially speaking) people. A poor person who spends $50 per year on lottery tickets, the coveted scratch-offs, etc. on a $25,000 a year salary spends .200% of their income on lottery tickets, presumably trying to get rich but actually just giving more money to the government and essentially paying higher taxes. A person who makes $60,000 a year and spends $50 on tickets only pays an additional .083% of their income to the government, although it should be recognized that they are doing so voluntarily but in a game that they are encouraged to play by KLC advertising - that's what we are trying to change. But poor people are more inclined to play this game, and right now the KLC is encouraging them to do so even though they are already poor and getting poorer playing the lottery.
4) Kind of a side note. The holiday themed lottery advertising is particularly revolting. For a state owned and operated corporation to advertise so that it may benefit from people's stupidity and misfortune is terrible. However, to encourage people to buy scratch-offs for their loved ones as Christmas presents is simply beyond asinine. This kind of stuff has to stop. Besides, I didn't see any ads telling people to get scratch-offs for their Jewish loved ones during Hanukkah. Why is the Kentucky Lottery Corporation discriminating like that, based on religious preference? (Hint: tongue in cheek)
If people didn't spend their money on lottery tickets, they would probably buy things and pay sales taxes, so the state is not going to lose that much money. However, I am not even proposing that anyone propose a bill closing down the lottery. All that needs to be done is to prohibit the KLC from advertising.
Labels: Kentucky politics, Personal Responsibility, Political economics, Public health, Public Service
posted by Jefferson at 8:37 PM
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