The Great Gadfly

Lottery History Tells the Future of Casinos?

Lottery History Tells the Future of Casinos?

From grand designs to cheap scams

By Peter Kenney

The official website for the Massachusetts State Lottery says, “The Massachusetts State lottery was established by the Legislature in 1971, in response to the need for revenues for the 351 cities and towns of the Commonwealth.”

However, when the lottery turned over $951.2 million to the Commonwealth in 2006 the legislature placed a cap of $761,378,162 on the amount that could be paid out to cities and towns as local aid. Since the lottery's operating expenses are 8 percent of its revenues, this leaves well over $100 million trapped entirely within the general fund for use by the legislature, having nothing to do with local aid. Once again we see that promises made by our state government, even those made in law, are not reliable.

This fact -- as demonstrated by the history of our state lottery -- is especially important to consider now as Governor Deval Patrick begins to press the legislature for approval of a casino gaming bill. Although the final bill is nowhere in sight there is a seventy-nine-page plan detailing what the governor proposes. The specifics of this plan are almost irrelevant to this discussion because we can say from experience that Massachusetts governors and legislatures have a long history of grand designs, sold as panaceas, but eventually mutilated and degraded to the level of more cheap political scams.

Two games and passive promotion

Consider: We were assured by supporters of the original lottery bill that there would be only two games -- the daily numbers game and the once-a-week megabucks game with a standard $1 million prize. We were also assured that there would be no advertising of the lottery other than the posters and notices to be seen at lottery sales locations. The Commonwealth would not promote or encourage gambling, that was the promise.

In the early 1990s I was in Boston, standing on the platform of the Park Street subway station waiting for a trolley, and I saw a huge advertisement pasted to the tunnel wall across from where I stood. It said, in large, colorful and expensive type, “FOR THE PRICE OF YOUR FARE YOU COULD BE THE NEXT MASSACHUSETTS MILLIONAIRE!”  It seemed to me that the Commonwealth was saying I could either put my last fifty cents in the toll box or I could risk it against the well-known odds that I would become a millionaire. So much for the promise of passive promotion.

Time's running out to vote for Peter Kenney, the Great Gadfly for a Best of the Blogs award.As for there being only two games, this morning I counted fifty different scratch-card games, some costing as much as $20 for one ticket. And now there are five weekly games: Mega Millions, Cash Winfall, Mass Cash, Megabucks (the original game) and Mass Millions. So much for the two-game limit. Add to these the Keno games available at bars where alcohol must loosen many a purse string and the worth of promises made by our state government becomes clear.

Do I have any takers?

As the casino gaming plan and bill move forward, we might assess the claims made in support of them according to these simple standards of comparison:

1. Why will casino gaming do for the Commonwealth’s fiscal health what the lottery has only partially done?
2. With all the outright dishonesty the Commonwealth has used to sell us the lottery, why will casino gaming be any different?
3. Even if casino gaming income does what is projected, will future governors and legislatures practice enough fiscal restraint -- unlike their predecessors since 1971 -- to make a third state-sponsored gambling scam unnecessary in 2040 or 2050?
   

Would you like to put some money on this?