"I do not believe a lottery is based on sound economic policy"

[barryqwalsh]

Mississippi House Speaker Philip Gunn said weeks ago that he would form a group to study the pros and cons of starting a state lottery. As the group met for the first time Wednesday, Gunn repeated his opposition to the game of chance.

"I do not believe a lottery is based on sound economic policy, and it violates a number of conservative, Republican principles," Gunn, a Republican who is also a leader in his local Baptist church, said in a news release.


Republican Gov. Phil Bryant said in his State of the State speech in January that Mississippi should consider starting a lottery because the state is losing money as residents drive to Arkansas, Louisiana and other places to buy tickets, particularly when they're tempted by multimillion-dollar jackpots.

Mississippi lawmaker forms group to study why lottery would be bad for state | Lottery Post

 

[shockedcanadian]

Good for him. In Ontario, lotteries, casinos and the like are a massive form of funding, for a province that is headed towards insolvency. There are more "sin taxes" in Communist Ontario than anywhere else in North America outside of Vegas.

I believe people are free to spend their money accordingly. However, when a government requires such a tax because they cannot balance their budget and operate within their means, it really ends up being a system that removes great amounts of money out of the system that would have otherwise had gone to small businesses and the like.

 

[martybegan]

Mississippi House Speaker Philip Gunn said weeks ago that he would form a group to study the pros and cons of starting a state lottery. As the group met for the first time Wednesday, Gunn repeated his opposition to the game of chance.

"I do not believe a lottery is based on sound economic policy, and it violates a number of conservative, Republican principles," Gunn, a Republican who is also a leader in his local Baptist church, said in a news release.


Republican Gov. Phil Bryant said in his State of the State speech in January that Mississippi should consider starting a lottery because the state is losing money as residents drive to Arkansas, Louisiana and other places to buy tickets, particularly when they're tempted by multimillion-dollar jackpots.

Mississippi lawmaker forms group to study why lottery would be bad for state | Lottery Post

A lottery is nothing more than a Tax on people bad at Math. That being said, I play every week, just because I like having at least a little action going on, and it prevents me from betting larger on other things.

 

[barryqwalsh]

Mississippians don't have to leave the state to participate in a lottery. Massachusetts Lottery's Megabucks Doubler game is available across the US by subscription.

Season Tickets for Megabucks Doubler are available by calling 1 (800) 222-8587.

 

[usmbguest5318]

"I do not believe a lottery is based on sound economic policy, and it violates a number of conservative, Republican principles," Gunn, a Republican who is also a leader in his local Baptist church, said in a news release.

From a positive economics standpoint -- construing the purchase of a ticket as the "purchase" of a sum of money -- playing the lottery is not an economically sound thing to do. One is very unlikely to receive that which one aims to obtain in return for the money one pays. From a normative economics standpoint, however, it can be a sound choice.

How can that be? The answer is found in understanding the economic concepts of utility and price elasticity of demand. "Utility" is economics-speak for satisfaction and "elasticity of demand" is economics-speak (with regard to buyers) for "worth it." (Demand and its elasticity/inelasticity, from a seller's standpoint, is something observed/experienced, not "had," as it is with buyers.)

• Utility - Wikipedia
  
• Marginal utility
  
• Price elasticity of demand
  
• Explaining Price Elasticity of Demand | tutor2u Economics

For some people, the utility of playing the lottery has little or nothing to do with whether they win. They get satisfaction equal to or greater than the dollar or two the ticket costs from putting a share of their money at risk. Increase the cost of the ticket and eventually the utility received is no longer worth the price one must pay to obtain it. At what price does that happen? It varies by individual, although it's quite likely that at a given price, the utility ceases to be worth it. That is, at, say, $2.50, not may people deem it not worth it, but some do. At $5.00 even more people deem it not worth it, but likely not everyone. At some price, the price where the aggregate demand curve for lottery tickets having a specific set of attribute meets the "X-axis," nobody deems it worth it.

 

[barryqwalsh]

The UK National Lottery is one of the most successful in the world, raising billions of pounds for community projects across the UK.

 

[barryqwalsh]

See how the UK uses lottery revenue.


National Lottery Distribution Fund Account


National Lottery Distribution Fund Annual Report and Accounts for the year ended 31 March 2016

National Lottery Distribution Fund Account 2015-16 - GOV.UK