In my view, America is not an inherently racist country. So it only follows that I don’t believe in systemic racism. However, for those who do, here is an idea for change: Dismantle state lotteries.
State-sanctioned gambling targets minorities and the poor. Prior to the advent of kiosks in supermarkets, liquor stores in majority-minority communities were the easiest place to buy lottery tickets. Or perhaps a hazy penalty-box sized cashiers counter in between pumps at a dodgy gas station. Studies reveal many who buy lottery tickets do so because it provides them a level playing field they are not able to play on in other aspects of their lives. Cue the outrage from the left.
Crickets.
On the one hand, I can’t understand how the self-proclaimed guarantors of the poor — AKA liberals and Democrats — don’t protest. But without digging too deep at all, just consider that according to the U.S. Census Bureau state coffers reaped $80.7 billion from these lottery sales in 2019 alone. Can a liberal avoid that money grab cleverly disguised as a pick-your-favorite-interest-group-needs-it entitlement?
I’d like to hear from Nancy Pelosi or Barack Obama. But I’d most like to hear from Rev. Al Sharpton, the matchbox degreed divinity guy, racial activist and slanderer. (See Brawley, Tawana)
For me, the most odious behavior here is states using tax dollars in this carjack. In state lottery jargon, one doesn’t “buy” a lottery ticket. Rather, one “plays” the lottery. Pennsylvania has a cute groundhog spokesman named Phil. Ain’t this fun?!
State sponsorship of lottery tickets costs every taxpayer. Even those who don’t play. That’s a regressive tax.
Ironically enough, the state pays for treatment to the addicts they spawn by providing 800 number hotlines for those who become gambling addicts. Isn’t this much more than a tacit acknowledgment of culpability in promoting a societal ill?
Lottery commissions can’t even regulate or make a game properly. During an eight-year period, an elderly retired couple routinely made a 14-hour drive from Michigan to Massachusetts to play a game called Cash WinFall where they grossed $26 million. That was enough for the state attorney general to launch an investigation.
They found no crime. I found two. One being the state developing a mathematically flawed game. The second being the taxpayer dollars spent on the investigation while concluding it was the fault of the state lottery commission for said flawed game.
State lotteries may not rise to the atrocity level of the government giving blankets laced with smallpox to American Indians, but it’s still a government program. It should be reconsidered, and it still ruins families.
When government leads the charge in creating poverty and addiction amongst minorities, that is state-sponsored systemic racism. Brought to you by your own tax dollars.
One might argue that all this would accomplish is putting numbers gambling back in the hands of the Mob. Two points here. First, raising cigarette taxes does exactly that. Liberals support such taxes as part of a global portfolio creating a nanny state. Second, there is not a scintilla of evidence that state sponsored legal marijuana has put a dent in the violence caused by the ever flourishing Mexican cartels or homegrown drug trade terrorists. I’m more inclined to refer to drug-related violence as systemic. Are you?
Michael J. Hudome is a Republican media consultant whose clients have included John McCain for President, all four national committees and several current and former members of the House and Senate.