Monday, October 08, 2007
Paging Steve Cohen
Reckon what Steve Cohen thinks about this?
"In reality, most of the money raised by lotteries is used simply to sustain the games themselves, including marketing, prizes and vendor commissions. And as lotteries compete for a small number of core players and try to persuade occasional customers to play more, nearly every state has increased, or is considering increasing, the size of its prizes — further shrinking the percentage of each dollar going to education and other programs. ...
"Also, states eager for more players are introducing games that emphasize instant gratification and more potentially addictive forms of gambling."
Speaking of state lotteries, Joseph Knippenberg says something very similar to what I was saying in 2002:
"For me the bottom line is this: it’s ironic that a program often touted as being good for education relies, first of all, on the economic ignorance of its 'core' customer base (quick: what’s the expected value of a dollar 'invested' in a lottery ticket, compared with a dollar put in an interest-bearing bank account?) and, second of all, on an attitude (wishfully thinking that one can get something for nothing) that is antithetical to the connection between hard work and self-discipline, on the one side, and reward, on the other that we’d presumably wish to cultivate."
"In reality, most of the money raised by lotteries is used simply to sustain the games themselves, including marketing, prizes and vendor commissions. And as lotteries compete for a small number of core players and try to persuade occasional customers to play more, nearly every state has increased, or is considering increasing, the size of its prizes — further shrinking the percentage of each dollar going to education and other programs. ...
"Also, states eager for more players are introducing games that emphasize instant gratification and more potentially addictive forms of gambling."
Speaking of state lotteries, Joseph Knippenberg says something very similar to what I was saying in 2002:
"For me the bottom line is this: it’s ironic that a program often touted as being good for education relies, first of all, on the economic ignorance of its 'core' customer base (quick: what’s the expected value of a dollar 'invested' in a lottery ticket, compared with a dollar put in an interest-bearing bank account?) and, second of all, on an attitude (wishfully thinking that one can get something for nothing) that is antithetical to the connection between hard work and self-discipline, on the one side, and reward, on the other that we’d presumably wish to cultivate."
# posted by Joltin' Django @ Monday, October 08, 2007 
