Georgia's, other states' lotteries a form of wealth redistribution

For the worthy purpose of funding education and other government services, Tennessee, Georgia and 41 other states have created lotteries.

This type of state-approved gambling is often defended on the grounds that it amounts to a "voluntary tax." After all, residents of a state are not forced to play the lottery. So supporters of the lottery view its proceeds as less objectionable than traditional taxes.

But while it is true that a person can choose not to play the lottery, it is also true that many families suffer financially and in other ways from the decision of one or both parents to play. In other words, a father or mother who plays the games may not be doing harm only to himself or herself but to his or her children and spouse as well.

And a recent study in the Journal of Behavioral Decision Making confirmed what we sadly already know: that lower-income people who can least afford to play the lottery are often the ones who do.

The study found that lottery revenue "comes disproportionately from lower-income residents, who shelled out a larger percentage of their pay on the games than wealthier people," Bloomberg News reported.

And the toll seems especially high among our neighbors to the south in Georgia.

Georgia residents on average spend a higher percentage of their income on lottery tickets than residents of any state except Massachusetts. And that is typically money that flows out of the pockets of low-income residents to provide college scholarships and other benefits -- often to people who are not from low-income families.

"It's a pro-rich wealth-redistribution technique in Georgia," said Charles Clotfelter, a professor of economics at Duke University.

We're certainly not against college scholarships and some of the other good things that lotteries fund. But states simply shouldn't be promoting the vice of gambling, however noble the purposes behind the lotteries.

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