With the proposal to introduce keno now
shelved, the governor and the General Assembly must devise an
alternative revenue source if they are to fund the governor’s
capital-development plan. However, let’s not for a moment
think that we’ve heard the last of expanding the
state’s lottery operations. Trust that when the inevitable
budget shortfalls reappear next year, keno will be back on the
table. Gov. Rod Blagojevich is by no means an
innovator in his proposal — he is following a nationwide
trend among states to expand their lotteries to pay for
public-works programs. In every case, public education is cited as
the recipient of at least a portion of those revenues. Any
objection to the use of such controversial revenue sources seems to
be trumped by the vaunted status of public education, its
unquestioned necessity to our state’s and our society’s
well-being. However, if only for this reason, we must demand that
in principle and practice our education system be provided and
provided for in a manner consistent with the values taught in our
classrooms. It is necessary and altogether proper for us to
consider precisely what is entailed in the operations of the state
lottery. The expansion of the lottery will certainly lead to
greater revenues for education — but at what cost, and
through what means? Never mind that the causes of public education’s fiscal woes are systemic and that
throwing money at the problem has proved ineffectual. Never mind that
while GTECH Corp. has for years been in dialogue with the state about
bringing keno to Illinois, Gov. Blagojevich’s proposal came only
after his former congressional chief of staff was hired by that tech
firm to lobby precisely for those ends. Let’s for a moment focus
merely on the fact that the lottery promotes — in fact, depends
on — the habitual “business” of the undereducated and
the financially desperate, those who public education is supposed to
help most. A 1999 study presented to the National
Gambling Commission revealed that, nationally, the average player
spends $313 per year on lottery. Whites spend $210, blacks $997.
And people with an annual income of less than $10,000 spent $597
— “the most of any income group.” Keep in mind,
almost all revenues from state lotteries were, at least initially,
to be steered toward higher education. College graduates spend half
as much on the lottery as do high-school dropouts. If you think that Illinois has remained
ignorant of these trends, consider its advertising slogans past and
present. A billboard placed by the Illinois Lottery in a blighted
Chicago neighborhood reminded residents that playing was “How
to get from Washington Boulevard to Easy Street.” Another reminder to the poor of
their hopeless situation then reassured them, “This could be your
ticket out.” The state doesn’t merely capitalize on the
fact that Illinois’ poor fail to realize that they can’t
afford to play . . . it reminds them again and again that they
can’t afford not to. It tells players you have to “play to
win.” You have to play to lose, too. But winning doesn’t necessarily mean
“getting rich” or “getting out” for many
players. They consider playing a prudent investment. A study
conducted by the Opinion Research Center found that one in five
respondents thought that “the most practical strategy for
accumulating several hundred thousand dollars [for
retirement]” was banking on the lottery. Annual lottery sales
in Illinois are $134.78 per capita. That’s $182.38 per adult.
Over a 40-year professional career, that same amount invested in an actual
retirement-savings plan would, on average, yield more than $250,000
more than would the lottery. It’s one thing for the state to condone
gambling, if only to tax it. It is quite another to conduct it.
State-sponsored schools exist, at least in part, to provide for
those who would not otherwise be able to afford an education that
encourages students to make careful, reasonable, even scholarly
judgments. Taxing wasteful, whimsical vice is a tradeoff most
taxpayers are willing to accept as a means of funding an
unquestioned social good such as public education. But taxing vice
is not the same as providing it, nor is it the same as promoting
it. Lottery players are by and large not members of some leisure
class. They are often misinformed, misled people who think that
playing the lottery makes mathematical sense — which,
according to the official Web site of the Illinois Lottery, is no
problem. After all, “You don’t have to be good with
numbers to play the Lottery!”
This article appears in Feb 9-15, 2006.
