Stop Predatory Gambling

The government program that profits from addicted and heavily indebted people

by spgadmin

The Tennessee lottery is attempting to add the Mega Millions game to its lineup and will vote next Monday on the proposal.

Rebecca Hargrove, CEO and president of the Tennessee Education Lottery Corp. said new innovations aren’t a reaction to the economic downturn.”Whether it’s a recession or not, you’re always looking at what is the next product you want to introduce,” she said.

There you have it. Here we are living through the worst economic crisis in eighty years and government lottery directors spend their time developing new and more predatory debt products to put in front of low-to-middle income people.

One woman quoted in The Tennessean story plays Powerball every week hoping to win a big prize. She can’t wait for Mega Millions to come to Tennessee. “I’d play them both,” she said. “If you don’t play, there’s no chance to win.”

Respectfully, that’s exactly the false perception the Lottery aims to instill in citizens everywhere. The truth is even if you do play, at odds of one in 195 million, there is still no chance for you to win. Why isn’t government helping people like Ms. Hammonds win by challenging us to save money instead of encouraging people to lose their money on virtually worthless gambling products, pushing them into even deeper debt?

The government program of state-sponsored predatory gambling: the most predatory institution still standing in America and it is owned by you and me.