Stop Predatory Gambling

Lottery items belong next to other examples of injustice from American history

by spgadmin

The Kentucky Historical Society is adding some early items of the 20-year-old Kentucky Lottery to its collection. Here is an excerpt from the Louisville Courier Journal story:

“We are trying to be pro-active in collecting materials that people see today and are common today,” said curator Andy Stupperich, adding that the items might be incorporated into some later exhibit, such as one that “lets people understand what was going on in Kentucky in the late 20th century.”

The society Wednesday morning took from lottery headquarters in Louisville these items:

* A drawing machine called the Beitel Criterion that was seen widely on televised drawings from 1989, when the lottery began, through 1993. During that time more than $350 million in prizes were awarded through drawings using the machine. It was most often used for the Lotto Kentucky and Cash 5 games.

Lottery spokesman Chip Polston said the machine dropped balls into a big bin, churned them around and then dropped the balls with the winning numbers down a slot. The machine was the first one used to conduct a legal lottery drawing in Kentucky during the 20th century. Beitel drawing machines at one time or another were used in lotteries in at least 40 countries.

* One of the original set of balls. Stupperich said the set originally had 50 balls, but several are missing.

* An original Kentucky Lottery sign that was probably once used by a retailer.

* A pull-tab vending machine.

Polston said the society first approached the lottery last spring about donating some items. Society representatives “thought they had hit the mother lode when we offered up the machine that conducted the first lottery drawing,” Polston said. The machine had stood inside the front door of the lottery headquarters in Louisville for 12 years.

Kent Whitworth, the society’s executive director, said the items will be added to the society’s collection of about 800,000 artifacts. “The acquisition of this original lottery machine speaks to a particular time period.”

Yes, Mr. Whitworth, a particular time period when our government regarded a large segment of American society as expendable by promoting highly addictive, debt-inducing gambling products to generate revenues. The creation of the Lottery Class violates America’s core democratic principles.

The lottery items also reflect a time period when our country has lost its economic values, a reality highlighted by New York Times columnist David Brooks in a MUST READ column.

History will show state-sponsored predatory gambling as one of our nation’s biggest mistakes. But it will also show our democracy’s resilient ability to correct itself.