Stop Predatory Gambling

Florida reporter exposes the Lottery’s highly predatory practices

by spgadmin

Reporter Lindsay Peterson of The Tampa Tribune wrote one of the best investigative stories on the lottery that has appeared anywhere in America in recent years. Read it here. Some of the story’s highlights include:

“The state pays millions to probe the thoughts and habits of potential lottery players. Consultants ask what they buy at convenience stores, whether they rent videos, go to theme parks, even how they feel about owning things and belonging to a group.

“The results show the lottery relies on the poorest and least educated — “Thrill Seeking Dreamers,” it calls them — to spend more than everyone else. Floridians shelled out nearly $4 billion on lottery tickets in 2008-09, with the Thrill Seekers accounting for half of those purchases.”

“The lottery needs to “reach people who have never played,” Florida Lottery Secretary Leo DiBenigno said, partly because of the recession but mostly because the state’s growth has slowed.”

“Adjusting for inflation, the lottery’s contribution to education will soon be lower than in 2002. A continued slide, the state analysts said, would cast doubt on the purpose of the game.”

“Anthony Miyazaki of Florida International University in Miami has spent more than a decade researching lottery players. He questions whether the state should promote a practice that exploits human weakness. “How do you have high expectations for people when the government itself is promoting what is likely a false hope?” he asked.”

“Lottery officials pay game creators and researchers millions to monitor players’ responses to new games and advertising. For about $2.4 million a year, global market researcher Ipsos Reid regularly surveys thousands of Floridians. The researchers ask hundreds of questions about the lottery games people play — where, why and how much they spend on each one. They ask about the messages they perceive from lottery ads. And they ask about their attitudes toward life, fate and gambling. The consultant breaks out the answers by gender, race, age, income and education, devoting special attention to Hispanics.”

“Studies of lottery spending, including one from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, show the money comes largely from Social Security, unemployment and other government support. Government, in other words, is paying government — with a lot of money siphoned off in the process. It’s inefficient, the reserve bank writers concluded.”

Inefficient, for sure, but it is also the most predatory business in America today.