Kog eeff’s two sequentialdiaries encouraging fellow Kogs to list their Powerball numbers with the promise that winners will split their take with all the others who do so raises, in my mind at least, the question of whether promoting and encouraging state-sponsored gambling is an appropriate use of a progressive political web site such as Daily Kos.
State lotteries typically hide behind the pretense of funding public education or other mom-and-apple-pie causes, and promote themselves as good clean fun. But the facts are that (1) as little as 11% of a lottery’s receipts actually go to the designated cause; the rest of the money goes to winners and to the corporations which provide the infrastructure for the lotteries; (2) economists beyond my ability to tally have branded state-sponsored lotteries as the most regressive forms of ‘taxation’ imaginable (preying, as they do, on the poor); (3) ‘education’ lotteries provide a handy excuse for politicians to cut taxes which would otherwise reliably fund public education; and (4) compulsive gambling is a very serious problem in the U.S.
With the demise of the ability to HR a diary, we’re left only with the ability to discuss these things. Am I making a mountain out of a mole hill here, or are lottery pool diaries completely over the top?