Stop Predatory Gambling

The state lottery business plan in its full glory

by spgadmin

The California Lottery announced yesterday it is increasing the prize pool for the scratch tickets it sells to increase its profits.

Higher prize pool (i.e. payout percentage) = more people win = more people put their winnings back into scratch tickets (which is mathematically certain they will ultimately lose) = increased sales.

“There are more prizes to give out, so people are going to win more often,” said lottery director Joan Borucki. “When people win more often, they feel like playing more often, which in turn will increase sales, and as sales go up . . . our contribution to education goes up.”

A contribution to education which makes up just 1.3% of the state’s education budget, according to this Los Angeles Times story – a figure even smaller than the 2% we posted about last week.

The facts can no longer be denied: the time has come to reconsider the government program of predatory gambling.