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April 02, 2009
This is a Tad Misleading
Down on its luck: Florida Lottery mailing out coupons to boost salesHere's what our economy is coming to: Even the Florida Lottery is handing out coupons.
What the author fails to take into account is that, as of January '09, Powerball came to Florida. Every swinging you-know-what hoping for a big payout is buying THOSE tickets instead of our old Lotto and the state gets only a fraction of the ticket price. Well, DUH, rocket men!
The lottery's a fraud anyway, perpetrated "for the children".
The billboard signs boast, like, "$80 BILLION for education since Christ was a Corporal!" And every dollar for education those tickets bring in REPLACES a dollar alotted for education, which then gets RETURNED to the general fund. The lottery hasn't supplemented JACK ~ it's been a one-for-one replacement scheme, which explains the functional illiterates in our school system and the poor $23 grand a year teachers who have to deal with them ~ while NOW worrying about getting laid off ~ for that princely salary.
Education in Florida, especially our redneck o' the woods, is a disgrace.
Posted by tree hugging sister at April 2, 2009 10:19 AM
Comments
Please, the lottery?
They used to call it "the numbers racket" and toss your caboose in gaol for it. Now the state's running the scam.
Posted by: mojo at April 2, 2009 11:30 AM
It's the biggest scam ever. Florida's lottery did OK when it was the only game for miles. I remember people, including myself once, driving to Pensacola from New Orleans to get in the game when the jackpot got large. Now that everyone has it, those states are just taking money mostly from their poorest citizens. Despite all the money these things are supposed to be kicking into our coffers, legislators come to us hat-in-hand every single year looking for more. What about all that lottery/casino/video poker/horseracing revenue? Just think where we'd be without it, they say.
Posted by: Rob at April 2, 2009 11:57 AM
The only thing the lottery has over the regular revenue streams is that we can choose not to pay it. They could always just decide to raise our taxes instead. But that being said, yes it's a huge scam.
For the MegaMillions (our northern version of PowerBall), you have to hit five numbers out of 52, and then the 1-in-52 chance on the "bonus ball" - basically, deal yourself five cards and predict the exact hand, then reshuffle and call the first card off the top of the pack. It's something like a 175 million to one shot, and there isn't even any guaranteed payout.
Posted by: nightfly at April 2, 2009 01:43 PM
OTOH, I lost less money on that lottery ticket than in my 401(k).
Posted by: Ken S, Fifth String on the Banjo of Life at April 2, 2009 09:09 PM