March 20, 1999
Column #916
THE SEDUCTION OF THE HOPE LOTTERY
Alabama is being seduced by a very
attractive neighbor, Georgia's HOPE Lottery. Her lure appears
irresistible, though she is nothing but a shameless harlot.
Since 1993, the Hope Lottery has
given $717 million in HOPE Scholarships to help 368,000 students pay for
going to college. In-state students with a high school average
of a ''B'' may qualify for HOPE scholarship to attend a public or private
college. If the maximum $1,500 HOPE Scholarship is spent at a public
college, it virtually pays the tuition, making college ''free.''
In addition, more than 97,000
Georgia adults have earned their GED (General Equivalency Degree) using HOPE
funds. Another portion of HOPE funds have helped 246,000 four-year-olds
attend voluntary pre-kindergarten classes. Finally, a fourth pot of $1.1
billion has been used to buy computers for schools, colleges and technical
institutes.
Furthermore, no new tax was needed.
It is all financed by the Georgia Lottery, paid for by people who hope their
lottery ticket will make them millionaires. During fiscal 1998, lottery
ticket sales totaled more than $1.72 billion, generating $555.2 million in
profits for the state.
Alabama's new Governor, Don
Siegelman, a Democrat, defeated a Republican incumbent, Fob James, by
promising to create an Alabama HOPE Lottery, with its returns.
Alabama's House has passed the bill, but with a price attached. A
number of legislators are insisting that video poker machines be allowed at
four state horse and dog tracks, which fear going bankrupt with a new
competing form of gambling, the lottery.
What's wrong with all this?
1. The poor pay. In 1997, lotteries
in 37 states took $16 billion out of the pockets of the desperate poor
hoping for the jackpot .In Chelsea, a poor section of Boston, there is one
lottery retailer for every 363 residents, many of whom are on welfare. They
spend 8 percent of their incomes on lottery tickets. In affluent
Milton, there is one retailer for every 3,657 residents.
2. ''Get rich quick'' schemes
seduce the culture. Massachusetts now sells more than $500 woth
of lottery tickets each year for every man, woman and child in the state.
''The New York Times'' reported that Ernie Kovic, a 28-year-old waiter
studying aircraft design at a trade school, stood in line to buy $3,000
worth of Powerball tickets, money he was saving for tuition. Why?
''If I win, I won't have to go to school,'' he said. Of course, he was
one of the 79,999,999 losers. He traded a real future for a hopeless dream.
Ten percent of all lottery players account for half of all lottery
purchasers.
3. Government no longer
protects the weak. Alabama's constitution outlaws gambling, to protect
the vulnerable from ''profiting from the desperation of the poor,'' says Dr.
James Dobson in his current leter to 2.4 million families. ''How times have
changed.'' Now they promote gambling with vigor. ''Indeed,
today's politicians love lotteries because they allow them to feed their
voracious appetites for revenues without having to pay the political price
for raising taxes. Truly, the fox is in the henhouse.''
4. Casinos foster crime, suicide,
child abuse. If the price of getting a lottery in Alabama is
that four casinos are set up with a thousand video poker machines, suicides
will rise nearby, according to Prof. John Kindt, of the University of
Illinois. ''Within two years of casinos opening in South Dakota, child abuse
cases went up 42 percent. People losing their paychecks go home and
beat up on the kids. Around casinos, people spent 10 percent less on
food and 25 percent less on clothing and 37 percent have dipped into
savings. And bankruptcies around casinos rose 400 percent in Memphis after
casinos opened in nearby Mississippi. Crime around casinos has increased 100
percent faster than in non-casino counties.''
5. Gambling destroys families.
''People who think gambling revenue is the answer often fail to acknowledge
the real problem in school performance is the number of children born out of
wedlock or whose homes are disrupted by divorce,''says Gary Palmer,
President of the Alabama Family Alliance. Alabama ranks sixth in the nation
in divorces now. ''Gambling will not fix that problem, it will contribute to
it."
6. The winners are the rich. Those
who received HOPE scholarships have an income of $44,876 while Georgia's
average income is $32,359. Why? Hope scholarship are really tax
credits, not grants. If a family's income is so low it pays no taxes, it
cannot collect HOPE.
My question is are Alabama's
religious leaders denouncing the immorality of the proposed lottery and
video poker? Only a few, too few.
Copyright 1999 Michael J. McManus. |
|
Since 1981...
2000+ Columns |
|
LATEST ARTICLE |
|
March 2, 2021: Column 2064: Stop
Executions for Murder |
|
Recent Columns |
|
RAISE THE MINIMUM WAGE |
|
Observing Lent |
|
Celebrating Marriage Week |
|
A Case for Pro-Life
|
|
End
The Death Penalty? |
|
Christian Choices Matter |
|
2020 Was A Terrible Year |
|
Suicides Rates Are Rising |
|
The Biblical Sexual Standard |
|
How to Cut the Divorce Rate in Half |
|
Divorce Rate Is Falling |
|
How To Save Marriages |
|
55 Years of Marriage |
|
How To Cut America's Divorce Rate |
|
Suicide Rate Rising |
|
Overcoming Porn Addiction |
|
The Devastation of Pornography |
|
Marriages Are Falling - But Improving |
|
Divorce Rates Are Falling |
|
Cohabitation: the Enemy of Marriage
|
|
How To Reduce Suicide |
|
How To Stop Drug Addiction |
|
Cut Federal Funds for Planned Parenthood |
|
The Horror of Soaring Suicides |
|
Make
Adoption More Appealing |
|
The Addictive Nature of Pornography |
|
Abortion Becoming Illegal |
|
Protecting Girls from Suicide |
|
The Worst Valentine:
Cohabitation |
|
Pornography: A Public Health Hazard |
|
Sextortion Kills Teens |
|
Cohabitation: A Risky Business |
|
Recent Searches |
|
gun control,
euthanasia,
cohabitation,
sexting,
sextortion,
alcoholism,
prayer,
guns,
same sex marriage,
abortion,
depression,
islam,
divorce,
polygamy,
religious liberty,
health care,
pornography,
teen sex,
abortion and infanticide,
Roe+v+Wade,
supreme court,
marriage,
movies,
violence,
celibacy,
living+together,
cohabitation,
ethics+and+religion,
pornography,
adultery,
divorce,
saving+marriages |
|