Govt Lottery - Good or bad ?

Without our national lottery we'd be in a hell of a state.

Thanks to the lottery we can now - pay our athletes huge amounts of cash to run about a bit with no prospect of winning anything, subsidise the royal ballet and the opera so the working classes can indulge in their traditional pastimes and displace high quality drama and innovative comedy with lowest common denominator based lottery draw programming, for the terminally vapid.

There are some bad points too.
 
BAD, an extra tax on the poor and middle class and it is without it ever being attributed to these poor as taxes they pay...same with liquor sales and cigarette sales tax and gas taxes.... all taxes collected by our gvt from the middle class and poor, to pay the bills...but they are not income taxes, so no credit for them from the repubs!.....what bullcrap!



:D
 
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They don't get credit for them from the Dems either. And many of those taxes you mention are proposed by Dems to pay for the costs of healthcare...

I love the way you attempt to make this all about Rs somehow. In CO the R governor tried to kill the Lotto. It's all good though, he was doing it because he was against overtaxing the poor, but he doesn't give them credit right?
 
Damocles said:
They don't get credit for them from the Dems either. And many of those taxes you mention are proposed by Dems to pay for the costs of healthcare...

I love the way you attempt to make this all about Rs somehow. In CO the R governor tried to kill the Lotto. It's all good though, he was doing it because he was against overtaxing the poor, but he doesn't give them credit right?
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TAKE NOTE!

I edited my post, by adding the ''sh*t eating grin'' smiley!

good morning damo!
 
I've never really gone with the "tax on the poor" argument.

Nobody's forced to buy a ticket and a lottery ticket isn't exactly a staple product. If an individual wants to volunteer to pay taxes to the government then let them.

People are going to gamble, be it the lottery or the horses, the football or the stock market. The lottery punter is no more stupid than the sap in the casino who thinks he's going to beat the house. If people want to delude themselves that a buck will buy you a good chance of a million dollar return then that's their look out.
 
Damocles said:
They don't get credit for them from the Dems either. And many of those taxes you mention are proposed by Dems to pay for the costs of healthcare...

I love the way you attempt to make this all about Rs somehow. In CO the R governor tried to kill the Lotto. It's all good though, he was doing it because he was against overtaxing the poor, but he doesn't give them credit right?
Click to expand...

somebody's got to get the juices flowing on this board.....:D, just thought i'd help do that for ya! lol

c.
 
charver said:
I've never really gone with the "tax on the poor" argument.

Nobody's forced to buy a ticket and a lottery ticket isn't exactly a staple product. If an individual wants to volunteer to pay taxes to the government then let them.

People are going to gamble, be it the lottery or the horses, the football or the stock market. The lottery punter is no more stupid than the sap in the casino who thinks he's going to beat the house. If people want to delude themselves that a buck will buy you a good chance of a million dollar return then that's thei look out.
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true, ''they'' are not FORCED TO charver, but ''they'' are KNOWN to pay for these kind of things OVER AND ABOVE the few of the wealthiest in the world...and this is KNOWN long before the tax is introduced...thus a tax primarily on the poor and middle but not the rich....why do you need to win a million bucks when you already have $200 million? :) tickets are primarily purchased by those that are wishing to be wealthy...
 
Actually, you'd be surprised how many lottery winners continue to buy tickets.

Rather than a "tax on the poor" a more apt description would be a "tax on the greedy".
 
charver said:
Actually, you'd be surprised how many lottery winners continue to buy tickets.

Rather than a "tax on the poor" a more apt description would be a "tax on the greedy".
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Except they purchase the tickets in a far higher percentage. The poor are constantly purchasing these things.... And man I know it. At one time I managed four convenience stores. The ones in the poor area (I had two in the "bad egg" side of town) sold almost 5 times the lotto tickets than the more well-off areas, even though the well-off areas had more sales overall...
 
I agree with charver, its not really a "tax". I think they are a good thing. The only problem I have with them is that you get structured settlements rather than lump sums for the full amount of winnings. I don't think that's fair. I see no problem with them. People like to gamble and the states get money. Its a win win.
 
LadyT said:
The only problem I have with them is that you get structured settlements rather than lump sums for the full amount of winnings. I don't think that's fair. I see no problem with them. People like to gamble and the states get money. Its a win win.
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The UK lottery just pays out the full amount, none of this so much a year for the next 20 years business and the only tax paid is on the original purchase price of the ticket. The practice of taxing people's winnings is an absolute con.
 
Charver over here that gommit gets money coming and going on the lottery :(

The poor hit the lottery for a chance at making the big time or living retirement in comfort. the more affluent already have that so no need for playing the lottery. Of course there are gambling addicts in both groups and always will be. One thing I saw that was sadly hillarious is on one side of the road is a billboard promoting hitting it big on the lottery and on the other side was one about gambling problems ? Call for help.
We all seem to want our cake and eat it too.
 
charver said:
The UK lottery just pays out the full amount, none of this so much a year for the next 20 years business and the only tax paid is on the original purchase price of the ticket. The practice of taxing people's winnings is an absolute con.
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You have to remember that these lotteries are held by States, not by the Federal Government. They take their piece regardless...

I was always frustrated when I got a check from the Treasury that they took taxes out of while I was in the Military...
 
Heck in the usa they will tax your SSI benefits.

I beleive we also pay sales tax on federal taxes on tires and such.
 
The lottery is fine if it is done through private enterprise I have no problem with it. If you are dumb enough to play the lottery go ahead and waste your money thats fine by me.

However the government should not do it. In general I think the government should keep away from instituting things that are harmful to people. Gambling addiction comes in many forms and obsessive loterry ticket purchasing is one of them. Government should not be the party that is causing such a thing.

I approve of legalizing marijuana for recreational use. That doesn't mean I think government institutions should be selling it in order to raise tax revenue.
 
No government should not sell vices. Frankly government shouldn't sell anything except that which is already owns. If is is necessary for a function of government perhaps but not as a revenue raiser.
 
The Lottery is one of my biggest pet peeves with the government. For one, I do not want to hear a god-damned politician tell me how bad it would be to have a casino in the state of Ohio, then not mention a damn thing about the state run lottery. Yeah, gambling is a problem, a government run so it continues problem, and any way they can reach in the pockets of people, they'll fuckin' do it. Especially when they can do it to dumb people wanting a better life but can't get a grip on reality enough to stop themselves from buying the damn things. It is not a win-win situation for anyone other than the politicians who take that money a blow it on bullshit, and they'll spend it on anything and get away with it, because no one complains when it comes from 'lottery ticket sales'. Hey, your tax dollars aren't buying pork, the poor dumb people are! Vegas is an awesome tourist attraction, and the gambling is done with privatly owned casinos. There are a ton of jobs and money flowing in to Vegas, and the chances of coming out with more than you went in with are better than the lotteries, but better yet, people have fun there. Not just the gambling, but all the shows and attractions that show up there just because of the amount of tourists the city attracts. That is a win-win situation, not this damn government run gambling program.
 
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