More Federal Encroachment
First, Right Minded Fellow is not a fan of big time gambling. A friendly poker game among some good pals, an office football pool, or those great NCAA tournament bracket competitions are all great fun, but what goes on in a commercial context and lotteries run by states are not all as innocent as they appear. It’s one thing to budget a little bit of money as part of an afternoon or evening’s entertainment and play a few ponies. If you’re clever, you might break even or even get a little boost in the bucket, but don’t count on it. Gambling is for recreation, period. Anyone who thinks of greater rewards or seriously thinks of getting big payoffs is deluding himself. If someone wants to budget a certain amount of money for lottery tickets and voluntarily pay more state taxes, that’s fine. But don’t let yourself feel you’re being charitable, that the five dollars you spend is five dollars more for education than if you didn’t play. It all goes through the state budget process, but targeted lotteries have helped build stadiums and that’s a good thing.
The evil is that the gaming industry and state lotteries do prey on stupid people. It’s one thing to play with the idea that the money you bet is money you’re spending to have a little fun and leave it at that. Playing Black Jack for instance can be a load of fun. If a person buys a lotto ticket twice a week, that’s cool. Sometimes it’s kind of nice to dream of what it would be like to have lots of money, but truth be told, you’re more likely to die from a comet falling out of the heavens and squashing you like a bug than winning the big lotto. Still, somebody’s going to win it, and it might as well be you? Right?
The sad thing is, go in any economically disadvantaged neighborhood, and you can almost tell what time of the day it is or if it’s drawing day for the big prizes by the lines at lottery terminals at liquor and convenience stores. In Central Maryland, the Maryland lottery has been especially effective marketing their product to working class and lower African American residents who spend far more than just a couple bucks when they’re in line. Many have a written out list of various boxing combinations and schemes to win the daily numbers games and the lure of the big lotto games and a few scratch offs also figure into the transaction. That states actively cater to creating a mindset that if one plays their lottery games, “You gotta play to win,” a one dollar lotto ticket could be their ticket out of poverty, their chance to escape from a meaningless low paying job, their chance to be rich enough to hobnob with celebrities and sports stars at all those fancy clubs. If you can dream it, a lottery victory will pay for it. It’s one thing if someone has some blow money to spend on such adventures, but when it’s at the expense of one’s children having clothes for school or lunch money, that’s sinful. Yes, folks there really is sinful behavior. Deal with it.
Given that is our philosophy on gambling, we believe it should be legal but we really need to do some serious soul searching about our states running lotteries that are so accessible and becoming more accessible and more varied all the time with no regard of how such marketing preys upon ignorant members of the population. Greedy state legislators see it as a way to have more money to spend, but even in the states with the richest lottery receipts, how much difference does the lottery make in terms of keeping state taxes low?
To think that it does is a myth. They’ll always push the budget as far as they can if the state requires a balanced budget, raise taxes at the last minute screaming EMERGENCY!!!
Delaware seeks to have parlor betting on sports events where folks going to the right destinations in the state could bet football games. The courts say “no” on the basis of a 1992 Federal ban on sports wagering. While we don’t encourage Delaware’s behavior, if that’s what the voters and their elected representatives want to do, they should be able to do so. Once again, the big Federal government is calling the shots on things that can be handled appropriately by states.
Delaware is a state with very low taxes on its citizens and businesses because they are geniuses at soaking up revenue from out of state. America’s second smallest state geographically, hardly a hop around the block in the northern area where I-95 travels through to Philadelphia or drivers veer off to cross the Delaware Memorial Bridge to hop on the New Jersey Turnpike. For starters, for the cost of 35.7 cents per mile, $4.00 toll in both directions, Delaware registers roar “cha-ching.” This little segment of I-95 does not connect anywhere in Delaware to anywhere else in Delaware, local streets do that; this is all money from out of state drivers. Add to that, much of the traffic goes on to the Delaware Memorial Bridge, “Ch-Ching!!!” Those entering Delaware pay $3.00, split 50/50 with New Jersey. Heading to Dover or to the Delaware Beaches, Delaware Highway 1 is the way to go. There are little nickel and dime tolls from I-95 down to Dover. Up in the narrow north, Delaware Park lures gamers and horse racing fans from the whole mid-Atlantic with Washington and New York within two hours drive. Dover Downs has more of the same half way down the state. The Delaware beaches serve Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, DC. Delaware is very good at making money off of out-of-state visitors who come to the state to have fun. Add to that, two NASCAR Sprint cup races with around 150,000 fans twice a year, “Ch-Ching!!!” And Delaware doesn’t even charge its guests sales tax.
With four major cities in easy daytrip range, sports betting is another big “Cha-Ching.” From the MD line along the coast and US-13 on up to the northern squeeze, with lots of hotel space along the shore and in Dover, why not go to Delaware and go crazy on NFL Sundays?
Well, the NFL says no and the Federal courts agree.
For more on the specifics, here’s an A/P article from NFL.com.
http://www.nfl.com/news/story?id=09000d5d8121d435&template=without-video-with-comments&confirm=true
Just because we personally think something’s not a good idea doesn’t mean we think the government should be poking their nose into it. It’s just one more way the federal Government keeps poking its nose where it doesn’t belong.
First, Right Minded Fellow is not a fan of big time gambling. A friendly poker game among some good pals, an office football pool, or those great NCAA tournament bracket competitions are all great fun, but what goes on in a commercial context and lotteries run by states are not all as innocent as they appear. It’s one thing to budget a little bit of money as part of an afternoon or evening’s entertainment and play a few ponies. If you’re clever, you might break even or even get a little boost in the bucket, but don’t count on it. Gambling is for recreation, period. Anyone who thinks of greater rewards or seriously thinks of getting big payoffs is deluding himself. If someone wants to budget a certain amount of money for lottery tickets and voluntarily pay more state taxes, that’s fine. But don’t let yourself feel you’re being charitable, that the five dollars you spend is five dollars more for education than if you didn’t play. It all goes through the state budget process, but targeted lotteries have helped build stadiums and that’s a good thing.
The evil is that the gaming industry and state lotteries do prey on stupid people. It’s one thing to play with the idea that the money you bet is money you’re spending to have a little fun and leave it at that. Playing Black Jack for instance can be a load of fun. If a person buys a lotto ticket twice a week, that’s cool. Sometimes it’s kind of nice to dream of what it would be like to have lots of money, but truth be told, you’re more likely to die from a comet falling out of the heavens and squashing you like a bug than winning the big lotto. Still, somebody’s going to win it, and it might as well be you? Right?
The sad thing is, go in any economically disadvantaged neighborhood, and you can almost tell what time of the day it is or if it’s drawing day for the big prizes by the lines at lottery terminals at liquor and convenience stores. In Central Maryland, the Maryland lottery has been especially effective marketing their product to working class and lower African American residents who spend far more than just a couple bucks when they’re in line. Many have a written out list of various boxing combinations and schemes to win the daily numbers games and the lure of the big lotto games and a few scratch offs also figure into the transaction. That states actively cater to creating a mindset that if one plays their lottery games, “You gotta play to win,” a one dollar lotto ticket could be their ticket out of poverty, their chance to escape from a meaningless low paying job, their chance to be rich enough to hobnob with celebrities and sports stars at all those fancy clubs. If you can dream it, a lottery victory will pay for it. It’s one thing if someone has some blow money to spend on such adventures, but when it’s at the expense of one’s children having clothes for school or lunch money, that’s sinful. Yes, folks there really is sinful behavior. Deal with it.
Given that is our philosophy on gambling, we believe it should be legal but we really need to do some serious soul searching about our states running lotteries that are so accessible and becoming more accessible and more varied all the time with no regard of how such marketing preys upon ignorant members of the population. Greedy state legislators see it as a way to have more money to spend, but even in the states with the richest lottery receipts, how much difference does the lottery make in terms of keeping state taxes low?
To think that it does is a myth. They’ll always push the budget as far as they can if the state requires a balanced budget, raise taxes at the last minute screaming EMERGENCY!!!
Delaware seeks to have parlor betting on sports events where folks going to the right destinations in the state could bet football games. The courts say “no” on the basis of a 1992 Federal ban on sports wagering. While we don’t encourage Delaware’s behavior, if that’s what the voters and their elected representatives want to do, they should be able to do so. Once again, the big Federal government is calling the shots on things that can be handled appropriately by states.
Delaware is a state with very low taxes on its citizens and businesses because they are geniuses at soaking up revenue from out of state. America’s second smallest state geographically, hardly a hop around the block in the northern area where I-95 travels through to Philadelphia or drivers veer off to cross the Delaware Memorial Bridge to hop on the New Jersey Turnpike. For starters, for the cost of 35.7 cents per mile, $4.00 toll in both directions, Delaware registers roar “cha-ching.” This little segment of I-95 does not connect anywhere in Delaware to anywhere else in Delaware, local streets do that; this is all money from out of state drivers. Add to that, much of the traffic goes on to the Delaware Memorial Bridge, “Ch-Ching!!!” Those entering Delaware pay $3.00, split 50/50 with New Jersey. Heading to Dover or to the Delaware Beaches, Delaware Highway 1 is the way to go. There are little nickel and dime tolls from I-95 down to Dover. Up in the narrow north, Delaware Park lures gamers and horse racing fans from the whole mid-Atlantic with Washington and New York within two hours drive. Dover Downs has more of the same half way down the state. The Delaware beaches serve Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, DC. Delaware is very good at making money off of out-of-state visitors who come to the state to have fun. Add to that, two NASCAR Sprint cup races with around 150,000 fans twice a year, “Ch-Ching!!!” And Delaware doesn’t even charge its guests sales tax.
With four major cities in easy daytrip range, sports betting is another big “Cha-Ching.” From the MD line along the coast and US-13 on up to the northern squeeze, with lots of hotel space along the shore and in Dover, why not go to Delaware and go crazy on NFL Sundays?
Well, the NFL says no and the Federal courts agree.
For more on the specifics, here’s an A/P article from NFL.com.
http://www.nfl.com/news/story?id=09000d5d8121d435&template=without-video-with-comments&confirm=true
Just because we personally think something’s not a good idea doesn’t mean we think the government should be poking their nose into it. It’s just one more way the federal Government keeps poking its nose where it doesn’t belong.
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