20% of all Massachusetts lottery revenue goes to the state’s Unrestricted General Government Aid program, which then uses its own systems to determine which communities need the most help and doles out aid accordingly. The only problem is that the system used by the program is becoming more and more out of touch, and the program is now taking aid from the poorer communities to give to more affluent, well-off cities and towns. The poorer communities often give the most in lottery revenue, as the poorer a neighborhood is, generally the higher the lottery revenue, only to receive significantly less in aid than they give in profits. Meanwhile, more affluent towns give little in lottery revenue, but receive much larger amounts of aid. This Boston Globe story explains why the lottery’s most profitable towns aren’t receiving what they put in.
Lowering the Standard of Living for Ordinary Citizens
Study spotlights the link between homelessness and problem gambling
Researchers at the University of Cambridge in England have found that homeless people are ten times more likely to be problem gamblers than non-homeless people. While many studies have been done examining the link between homelessness and alcohol or drug usage, this is one of the first to consider how homelessness affects one’s propensity to have a gambling addiction. This article summarizes the study’s findings.
2014 New study reveals scale of problem gambling among homeless population
The rise of penny slots
The name “penny slot” implies that these machines are essentially harmless- after all, what use is there for one penny? However, these machines, which are rapidly growing in popularity, garner huge profits for casinos at the expense of players. These machines attract mainly lower-income players, lured by the idea that one penny can net them some extra cash. Most “penny slots” actually require you pay more than 1 cent per play, with some requiring 25 or 50 cents, and others requiring bets of over $1. Players put more than $500 million into penny slots in January alone, and given the high profits they give to casino owners, casinos are starting to install more and more of them. This article, from the Press of Atlantic City shows how one penny can cost gamblers a lot more than you might think.
The issue of dischargeability of gambling debt grows in severity
With the increasing pervasiveness of government-sponsored gambling, the issue of the dischargeability of gambling debt has become very significant. The attached report by two U.S. Trustees of Indiana highlights several major problems including how one research group suggests that about 10 percent of bankruptcy filings are linked to gambling losses, 20 percent or more of compulsive gamblers are forced to file bankruptcy because of their losses, and upwards of 90 percent of compulsive gamblers use their credit cards to gamble.
GAMBLING ON DISCHARGEABILITY: Casino debt collection practices
North Carolina Lottery does not provide promised education funds
This article by the North Carolina Justice Center explains how the North Carolina Lottery is not living up to its promises of education funding. After providing an initial bump in funds for education, the level of education funding has now dropped back down to below pre-lottery levels. The old argument that the lottery will pay for its social injustice by giving money to schools is now defunct, according to the article, because the state spends less on education than it did before the lottery was put in place. Now that the lottery no longer provides money for education, it is no more than “a regressive tax that falls mainly on the poor”.
Casinos hurt home values in host communities
A new report from the National Association of Realtors shows how home values in western Massachusetts would be hurt by a casino in the area. Due to its addition of traffic noise and the general bother of an attraction that brings thousands of people in, a casino would have an “unambiguously negative” affect on home values in the areas, sapping as much as $3300 in value from the average homeowner. Below is a copy of the study itself, as well as an article summarizing its findings.
2013 Realtor study NAR- Casino-Research
2013 Realtors- Western Massachusetts casino would hurt home values in host community
Many Asian-Americans are riding the casino bus everyday just to exist
This article from The Morning Call details a growing phenomenon in the Asian-American community in urban New York. Many of these people are very poor, or even homeless, desperate for a way to make a living. Casinos will often provide $45 in free-play cards to these citizens, as a way of getting them into the door and luring them into playing. These people then take a bus for several hours to a casino, and sell these cards to gamblers at the casino, so they can have cash to support themselves.
2014 Asians at Sands Bethlehem casino ride bus to live
Report shows staggering costs of problem gambling
This report, by The Victorian Competition and Efficiency Commission, estimates the cost of problem gambling to be as high as $2.8 billion in Victoria, Australia. Excess gambling by problem gamblers accounts for up to $1.4 billion of this, with the rest coming from the intangible costs for problem gamblers’ mental health and familial stability. This article by The Age summarizes the report’s findings.
2013 Cost of problem gambling could be as high as $2.8b- report
Tax break for Atlantic City casinos means more struggles for the city
According to this article by NorthJersey.com, Atlantic City may have to take on an additional tax burden after casinos in the city won a large property tax reduction in court. The reduction is due to declining property values of casinos because of the casino industry’s overall downward spiral in recent years. The city will now have to cope with the loss of serious tax revenue in addition to its long-term financial struggles.
The link between poverty and lottery sales is undeniable
This article by The Hartford Courant, written in response to a taxpayer-funded study that concluded no link between poverty and lottery sales, presents the findings of several other studies that have time and again found an irrefutable link between poverty and lottery sales, and poverty and gambling addiction. The author offers insightful comments on these many past studies that have found this strong link and finds the faults in the one study that has concluded otherwise.