Free Republic

Paul "Skip" Stam, a Republican state lawmaker from North Carolina, is taking some heat for his proposal to ban people on welfare from buying lottery tickets. His bill also proposes to drop "Education" from "N.C. Education Lottery" ads because profits fund many government expenses unrelated to education. Moreover, the state shouldn't use "education" to promote "something that is essentially a scam," he said. It's good to know Connecticut wasn't the only state duped into creating a lottery "for the children" only to see the proceeds diverted for a plethora of political, non-educational purposes. Enforcing Rep. Stam's ban would be problematic,...

Do any attorneys want to weigh in on this question? The Obama campaign has already been warned by law enforcement agencies against running "Backstage with Barack" and "Dinner with Barack" lotteries in Minnesota and possibly Colorado. Minnesota's Department of Public Safety counseled Obama for America to provide a means of entering to win a chance to meet Barack Obama without making a donation, which would remove the "payment of consideration" element that makes the scheme an illegal lottery. The Obama campaign agreed to do so, but it apparently broke this promise as of October 31 2008. We are not attorneys...

Previous studies have examined the effect of income on lottery ticket expenditures using an aggregate measure of income, usually personal income. Reasons exist, however, for believing that lottery expenditures do not respond equally to all sources of income. This paper examines the propensity to purchase lottery tickets from separate types of income, namely income from earnings, transfer payments, and wealth. Using county-level data for five states, we find evidence that lottery expenditures respond differently to changes in each income type, and that ticket purchases are most strongly influenced by changes in transfer payments. Several policy implications follow from our results.

An elderly victim of the Lotto rapist Iorworth Hoare faces a potential legal costs bill of £100,000 after losing her appeal against a court’s refusal to allow her to claim damages against her attacker. The former teacher, now 77, sought compensation for the psychiatric injury she suffered in the wake of the "violent and disgusting" attempted rape. But her claim was rebuffed by the courts today. She was 59 when Hoare, who had previously subjected six other women to serious sexual assaults including rape, attacked her as she walked in Roundhay Park, Leeds, in 1988. Hoare, 53, was jailed for...

Unless a U.S. senator on the Judiciary Committee abdicates to his silliest staff member, next month's hearings on Harriet Miers won't feature an inquisition into her tenure as chairman of the Texas Lottery Commission. That's too bad. Her story might not support the preoccupations of certain bloggers who insist the lottery episode is the Rosetta Stone of all Bush "scandals." But it does throw a useful light on America's rush to embrace state-sponsored gambling.

8 lottery winners who lost their millions Having piles of cash only compounds problems for some people. Here are sad tales of foolishness, hit men, greedy relatives and dreams dashed. By Ellen Goodstein, Bankrate.com For a lot of people, winning the lottery is the American dream. But for many lottery winners, the reality is more like a nightmare. "Winning the lottery isn't always what it's cracked up to be," says Evelyn Adams, who won the New Jersey lottery not just once, but twice (1985, 1986), to the tune of $5.4 million. Today the money is all gone and Adams lives...

LOTTO LOSERS by Timothy Rollins, Editor and Publisher January 8, 2004 With the turn of events the last couple of days regarding the MegaMillions winner in Ohio, this was simply too good to pass up. Then as a bonus, the richest loser in America made the papers again with yet another case of men behaving badly.We begin with America's idiot of the moment, and I'm not thinking of Mr. Britney Spears (aka Jason Alexander of Kenwood, Louisiana), but rather 40-year-old Elecia Battle (right) of Cleveland. For the unfamiliar, here's what happened: Last weekend, there was a single winner of the...

Voluntary Alternatives to Taxation Stuart K. Hayashi Most Americans believe paying taxes is a patriotic duty. Yet this very nation was founded upon people evading taxes in 1776. When individuals don’t pay taxes, the government goes after them with guns, even though they haven’t used force on anyone else. Thus, taxation is an initiation of physical force against the individual’s right to life, liberty and property. Because taxation is forcible extortion, it violates your right to property. If you don’t pay taxes, you can be jailed, hence depriving you the right to liberty. And if tax “evaders” fight tax...

If you saw Wednesday's Herald, you, too, probably got a warm feeling looking at the picture of Richard and Betty Harrington, the ``miracle couple'' from Wakefield whose worries over staggering medical bills vanished when he realized he'd won $4 million with a scratch ticket. Who could help but rejoice for this woman who survived a double-lung transplant and her husband whose health insurance was canceled? Read on. ``I'll admit I was torn,'' Ruth said. ``Obviously I was happy for them because they deserved a break. But what drove me crazy was wondering how many other people who never bought a...

From State and Local Government Review, (1997) Vol. 29, pp.34-42. Lotteries for Education: Windfall or Hoax? Donald E. Miller Patrick A. Pierce Saint Mary's College   This study was supported by a grant to both authors from the Center for Academic Innovation at Saint Mary's College. The authors wish to acknowledge the assistance of Erin O'Neill and Beth Urban in data collection and data entry, respectively. We also benefitted from comments by Joe Stewart. During the 1980s and into the '90s, the nation witnessed a flurry of lottery adoptions. As declining rates of federal fund transfers and increasing numbers of...