-
Treasure State Treasury
May 17, 2013 | 3 comments
-
Sweet Sounds Way Out Yonder
May 2, 2013 | 7 comments
-
Midnight in Missoula
April 2, 2013 | 15 comments
-
Unsequestered Snow Melts
March 22, 2013 | 11 comments
-
What Would Barry Think?
March 7, 2013 | 10 comments
The Nation's Pulse
Vice Economics
Playing the lottery could use some perspective.
Years of living in Wyoming deprived me of a vice that unlike all others I never gave up, playing the lottery. Wyoming —thanks to an anti-gambling faction in the state legislature and a regular thumbs down from voters in past statewide referendums — does not participate in the national Powerball lottery (the proceeds of which are used to support “education,” but that’s another piece in itself). The casino operated by the Northern Arapahos on their Wind River Reservation is beyond state jurisdiction.
I knew people in Cody who drove forty miles north to Belfry, Montana to get their tickets. Now that I live in Salmon, Idaho, I simply pick them up at the nearest convenience store. Twice a week I invest in a Powerball Quick-Pick ticket. I say “invest” because the investment promises a possible return of $3 to multi-millions, and you have to — as the saying goes — be in it to win it. Last week somebody in Pennsylvania won $59 million. A couple of weeks before that a Connecticut ticket scored $254 million. Unlike other players I don’t ritually use the same numbers week after week, but take the random Quick-Pick. But other rituals are familiar: signing the ticket and checking the numbers online, or via a phone recording or newspaper.
Of course, the odds of taking the grand prize are astronomical. The 195 million to one odds of hitting the jackpot has been compared to blindfolding yourself and then on your hands and knees locating a pea placed on a football field. At eleven million to one, one is more likely to be the victim of a shark attack tenfold. It’s 5 million to one to hit the $200,000 prize (50 percent more likely than the shark attack), 723,000 to one to win $10,000. Throw in the lower tier prizes ($100, $7, $4, $3), and the player has a 35 to 1 chance to win something. I have hit two $4’s and a $7 and these merely paid for the next few upcoming tickets.
The ticket costs a dollar, so my annual expenditure is $104. A friend tells me that this sum is a “tax on stupidity,” but if that’s the case then I’m not as stupid as I used to be. After all, gambling (or its modern euphemism “gaming”) is the only vice that promises that aforementioned possible dividend.
I drank rather heartily for years and the only investment return I gained from that were hangovers. I’m guessing that I spent that $104 on a sometimes weekly basis during my bibulous career. Even just a six pack of beer in the pre-microbrew 1970s-'80s cost two or three times what I spend on one Quick-Pick today.
I was a cigarette smoker until about twenty years ago. At the time a pack of cigarettes — depending on the brand — cost approximately two dollars (it’s twice that and more today). I smoked roughly a pack per day, so I’m guessing that I spent fifteen bucks per week (occasionally buying a full carton was more economical, of course). This adds up to $780 annually. The only thing I got from smoking was the chance (hopefully now diminished) to develop lung cancer or emphysema. Certainly no multi-million dollar payoff there. No high-end real estate transactions or international travel. No weekends at the Ritz in Paris. The two bucks per week I now devote to lottery tickets bought one pack of smokes in 1990.
Like many folks who came of age circa 1970, I dabbled in my share of drugs, especially marijuana. My current non-participatory research tells me that dope is more potent and pricey nowadays. Legal medical marijuana distribution seems to be yet another aspect of an insanely expensive healthcare system. Small amounts of weed so strong that it will not only get you high, but, well, maybe in touch with your ancestors.
In 1972, just graduated from high school, I had a job in a warehouse that netted me $90 per week. I devoted $20 of this paycheck to a weekly one ounce bag of pot, which back then was a good deal. It was rather tame stuff, commonly referred to as “commercial Mexican weed.” The better “Acapulco Gold” and Colombian stuff were rare and went for $40 and more, and was mostly beyond my means. I don’t think I spent the $20 every single week, but if I did the annual bill came to $1,040 — over a grand, and ten times my current lottery ticket bill. For this investment I risked tangling with law enforcement and jail time. My dealer was a high school friend who displayed his wares in an elegant alligator-skin briefcase. Always entrepreneurial-minded, we planned to invest our share of George McGovern’s promised $1,000 tax credit for low income Americans (McGovern dropped this scheme from his platform before election day, but I was probably too stoned to notice) in a projected retail marijuana business. So I cast my first vote in a presidential election accordingly. Fortunately, the majority of the American electorate was wiser than I.
The libertarian in me says “What the hell?” but I do wish I’d never spent all that money — so long ago — on dope, booze, and cigarettes. So, today, my motto can be found printed at the bottom of every Powerball ticket I buy: “Please play responsibly.”
About the Author
Bill Croke, formerly of Cody, Wyoming, is a writer in Salmon, Idaho.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (36) | Leave a comment
More Articles by Bill Croke
More Articles From The Nation's Pulse
http://spectator.org/archives/2011/11/30/vice-economics
Follow us:
ADVERTISEMENT
SPONSORED LINKS
FLASHBACK TO: 1995
-
Pope Culture
A man of faith in a godless age is hitting Americans where it hurts.
-
Why the GOP Does Not, Like, Totally Suck
Mr. and Mrs. American Spectator Reader, let P.J. O’Rourke talk sense to your kids.
-
Dames at Sea
-
In the Absence of Guns
In Britain, defending your property can get you life.
-
The Metaphysical Martini
-
Counting the Costs of Clintonism
The debacle of this president’s administration is both a cause and a symptom of the decline of American values. Unless Congress impeaches him, that decline will go on unchecked. An eminent jurist surveys the damage and assesses the chances for the recovery of our culture.
-
Chuck McHagel
It won’t take long for conservatives to scratch this presidential wannabe off their 2008 scorecard.
-
The Legacy of Old John and Mother Fresh-Roasted
-
It’s the Best Time of the Year
The American Christmas, like the songs that celebrate it, makes room for everybody under the rainbow. Is that why so many people seem to be hostile to it?
-
The Bush Crack-Up
Was the President done in by the economy, or by the politics of the economy?
Clip of the Day
ADVERTISEMENT
Kitty| 11.30.11 @ 6:29AM
I don't drink or smoke, and I've never done drugs, not even pot. But I have played the lottery. My boss and I together play Mega and Lotto, each twice a week, and we bought scratch-off tickets. Whatever we won on the scratch-offs we pumped back into more tickets. Our Mega and Lotto tickets rarely won anything in all the years we played, which made quitting all the more difficult. We always figured that the week we didn't play would be the week our numbers would come up. Once we quit, I never looked back.
Brian Mc| 11.30.11 @ 7:16AM
When the government stops taxing those who win, I might consider buying a ticket. Until then, it is as the bumper stickers says, "A tax for the mathematically challenged". In the meantime, I find immediate gratification in an ale and a smoke with the full knowledge that no one gets out alive.
One room school houses of the last century gave better education than the stupidity mills churning out ignorant voting blocks for socialism: I'll be damned if I'm gonna give them one more red cent than necessary. I suppose I'm just evil in that respect; heartless when it comes to the poor kids getting their daily dose of liberal mush and costing us tens of thousands of dollars per.
Brian Mc| 11.30.11 @ 3:52PM
Back in the 80's, Timothy, the powers that be, (in my state of Iowa), promoted the lottery as a way to fund the schools and the little children. You see, it was all for the children which made you un-American if you were against it! I would like to see the numbers of how much of the actual intake is actually going to these so-called schools. As for my other remarks, I was targeting particular arguments in a facetious way, I must admit. If this caused a bit of discomfort to your regimen this morning, my apologies...that is, if you were referring to my particular diatribe concerning the subject at issue.
Timothy L. Pennell| 12.1.11 @ 6:08AM
Hey, Brian Mc. Don't flatter yourself. I didn't even READ whatever you wrote. I was responding to Goody Two Shoes, who wrote the article.
Actually. Now that I look at it. Good job. I couldn't agree more.
Timothy L. Pennell| 11.30.11 @ 7:27AM
What the Hell was that?
Is this like: OPEN LINE FRIDAY, for people who want to write whatever they want?
Mac Jehoff| 11.30.11 @ 2:01PM
When a certain east coast state allowed lotteries and gambling, one stipulation was no advertising. Now that a parade of liberals have passed through the turnstiles of the state house, large portions of the gambling "revenue" collected by the state are earmarked for ad agencies. Give your Dreams a Chance, sucker!
Unobtrusive| 11.30.11 @ 3:30PM
You blame lotteries and gambling on just the liberals? Surely not, Mac J. Even now in a state that has a governorship and legislature in the hands of the GOP, I see no effort (no finger lifted) to roll back or eliminate any of the lotteries/gambling.
See, we have a bad country. Through and through. To maintain otherwise is folly in the highest.
Most people delight in their follies. Just like most people are on the road to Hell.
It shouldn't be so, but it is.
Mac Jehoff| 12.1.11 @ 12:06AM
Please pray for us.
Martin Owens| 11.30.11 @ 9:05AM
Opposition to legalized gambling illustrates a core contradiction:
IF you can't trust somebody with a couple bucks of his own money, a few hours of his own time-
How in the world can you pretend he's fit to exercise the power of the vote?
Bob K.| 11.30.11 @ 9:20AM
Gambling is a big factor in our gross domestic product according to a guy I know who dabbles in economics.
The problem with it (he says) is that it is like factoring the Drug Trade and Prostitution into it too and nobody really knows how much money goes through those enterprises either.
DTOM| 11.30.11 @ 10:29AM
There is an often-tendered argument that we should, like Nevada, legalize gambling in all its forms, prostitution, and recreational (?) drugs. Sounds great, legalize them and tax them, and all of our money problems are solved. Until you factor in the runaway costs of the destruction of personal wealth associated with those activities.
Sex addicts.
Drugs addict.
Gambling addicts.
Not everybody, but enough that there are significant organizations trying to overcome these addictions. And the personal destruction they cause.
Gambling? C'mon, what other legal business offers its customers the option of being put on a permanent, forcibly-imposed "no entry" list. Really, you can sign a document that gives the casino the right and the responsibility to evict you from their premises so that you won't use their services.
And this is a business our government is in?
What next? Legalized murder? I can here the radio spot now:
Fool your intended victim to come to our state, pay our reasonable $50,000 whack tax, and you can settle that ol' score permanently, rest assured!
Think of the tax revenues! Maybe they could offer the tax retroactively, after you get caught for the murder? But they should charge more for that. It'd cut down on prison costs, too.
Maybe California and Illinois should look into this...
VICE is VICE! Government should not be 'profiting' from it. Is that what we want for our people?
Bob K.| 11.30.11 @ 11:01AM
DTOM,
Ya gotta admit! When done right they are Free Enterprise and tax free enterprise to boot! Not to mention profit making.
Of course if the government gets into them then the profits go out the window!
Instead, if I was a true believer in the religion of Socialism I'd tax the crap out of them in the hope that the sinners engaged in those activities would repent their ways and share their largesse with those less fortunate.
DTOM| 11.30.11 @ 12:22PM
The government has no business in free enterprise. They should not even deliver the mail.
Just because something can be classified as free enterprise does not make it a good thing. Vice is vice, it is a failing and should not be promoted. It should be heavily taxed so as to raise its cost and lower its profits.
Yeah, you could call this social engineering if your name is Newt. But there are huge social costs associated with vice - unwanted, abandoned children is just a start.
But I'm not a libertarian - I think there are some activities that the government should inhibit. Ya know, stuff like MURDER. Actually a really high financial penalty for murder might actually be a more effective deterrent than the low probability of serious punishment at the hands of the government.
DRed| 11.30.11 @ 12:44PM
You think drug or gambling addicts have any problems finding drugs or someone to take bets right now?
DTOM| 11.30.11 @ 2:37PM
No I don't and I think they should.
You may hold a different opinion. That's okay.
I just think that dumbing down the law by decriminalizing so much self-destructive behavior is totally unhelpful and strongly counter productive to a healthy society. Things were better when the Mob ran the numbers racket than the Government. At least in that system there was no way to kid yourself that you weren't actually doing something so stupid that it evil. They were crooks and you knew they were robbing you. How many people in casinos understand that they and their fellow losers (Don't they call themselves "gamers?") pay for everything they see and touch in the casino with their losses? I bet very few.
Here's a simple test:
You are watching a guy flip a quarter, which he borrowed from you - so you know it's not fixed. Heads has come up fifty times in a row, what is the probability that the next toss is Heads?
50%, not a billionth of a percent as some might think.
DRed| 11.30.11 @ 2:42PM
After heads has come up 50 times in a row I might think there's something wrong with the quarter.
Anyhow, I think prohibition causes more harm than it prevents. Our drug war is expensive, socially disruptive, and a total failure at achieving it's goals. We've been trying prohibition for decades, and it's an obvious failure. It's time to try something new.
Unobtrusive| 11.30.11 @ 3:42PM
DRed, the vaunted US war against drugs is a failure because of many factors. However, it is not a failure due to the core merits of eliminating hellacious and harmful substances.
The drug war is a failure because it is "fought," er, rather NOT fought at all. Oh sure, a few discoveries of caches here or there, a few busts. All for the news, department promotions, and to provide some reassurances for a doubting public.
Our many years "drug war" is a failure because the people in positions to do the right thing are systematically doing the wrong things. They are bribed and take the bribes. Then they are blackmailed. Money talks. And most politicians, law enforcement officials, prison system employees are subject to being persuaded by money. Matters not to them whether legit money or illicit.
And once they've taken money -- just one time -- well, they've been co-opted. (And this is the same with gambling. Ever see the bets sums place on just even moderately important national sports contests?)
This is one big reason why politicians in all the border states do a total whitewash of US/Mexico border security.
You seem to think we've actually been trying in the "drug war." Hardy-har-har-ha. The drug lords count on 15 - 18% getting interdicted by law enforcement. They don't care as long as the 80% goes through.
DRed| 11.30.11 @ 3:49PM
So what's your solution? More erosion of our civil liberties?
rn| 12.1.11 @ 7:12AM
Latest example of lily-white law enforcement vis a vis drugs, coming from The Denver Post: http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_19437474
THKrupp| 11.30.11 @ 10:02AM
While I have dabbled in almost every vice known to man, I was never much into gambling. The vague chance at getting a big payout was never enticing. At least with all the other vices you have some memories or at least stories your friends could remember. The only times I have played the lottery are when everyone at work puts together a pool. I would hate to be the only one that didnt play and have them all win.
DTOM| 11.30.11 @ 12:24PM
Even a passing understanding of the laws of chance and probability render gaming an unpleasant way to waste time and money.
It really is a "stupid" tax. How appropriate and ironic that they use it to fund what passes for education in this country.
ncatty| 11.30.11 @ 10:13AM
Mr. Croke, thanks for a hilarious article!
JohnD| 11.30.11 @ 10:41AM
As the saying goes "Some of the best times of my life are the ones I don't remember with friends I can't forget." Guess what I WASN'T doing with those friends at those times? Playing the lottery. It is a tax for the stupid.
PhilTheCapitalistPig| 11.30.11 @ 11:51AM
"Twice a week I invest in a Powerball Quick-Pick ticket. I say "invest" because the investment promises a possible return of $3 to multi-millions, and you have to -- as the saying goes -- be in it to win it."
That is using the term "invest" loosely.
PhilTheCapitalistPig| 11.30.11 @ 11:52AM
I'm gonna go "invest" some money on the craps table this weekend.
Craven Minds, empty souls| 11.30.11 @ 12:18PM
If readers at Spectator can somehow justify gambling, then there's massive problems in the land.
If readers at Spectator, can somehow justify gambling that provides tax monies for schooling or "infrastructure," then there's massive problems in the land.
Something about ill gotten gain.
Something about people becoming addicted.
Something about a vice being defined as a vice.
Something about homes wrecked.
Something about understanding that your earthly belongings and wherewithal are not yours.
Not yours.
Not yours at all.
Stewardship. Look it up. Means looking after what is entrusted to you. See, what you have...you don't have at all. You never did. Oh, you might delude yourself. But there's nothing that you have.
It would be much better to ask God what He'd prefer you do with that gambling (or pot, booze) money so frivolously expended.
You could sponsor a child through a missionary agency with that $104 per anum, Mr. Croke. Now what kind of return on investment might that give you?
Scrooge McDuck| 11.30.11 @ 1:56PM
My money is MINE, to do with as I please. Whatever is left after various government agencies steal "their" share. I enjoy sharing vast sums with G*d and various charities, sometimes even an occasional poor soul.
DTOM| 11.30.11 @ 2:39PM
You betcha. But you are only going to live so long-your time is irreplaceable. So drive by the casino, open the window, throw the money you were going to risk at the craps table out the window and go home. Think of the time you will have saved.
Scrooge McDuck| 12.1.11 @ 12:09AM
Screw the casinos, I would rather piss my money away on beer.
Ron| 11.30.11 @ 12:40PM
Bill,
Hate to tell ya' man, but you still look stoned...BTW, ditch those shades, they are soooo 70's.
Lee Ghume| 11.30.11 @ 1:51PM
The shades look like shooter's spectacles to me.
get real| 11.30.11 @ 4:15PM
Somehow our dear leaders put salve and balm on their consciences as regards gambling. (Assuming they have consciences. Yes, a big leap.) As we know, these Moneyball or SuperJackPot or WhateverBigWins advertised along the highways in big cities -- on billboards the size of basketball courts -- provide monies for our public education system.
Uh, right.
Just like that money that's risen from 15 cents to 25 cents to 50 cents to a dollar and now $1.50 helps finally pay for the local road infrastructure through tolls. (32 years later and the tolls are still there)
Uh, right.
We decry the dumbing down of our nation.
Well how dumb is it to drive past these megasized gambling promotion billboards and do nothing?
State Sanctioned.
How many of these dear leaders openly proclaim their goodness and moral character?
We're on a Ship of Fools.
Ubiquitious Indian Reservation casinos, riverboat casinos where there is no water, sports betting 24/7 on the web, toll-free, however you like it. All night gas stations where most customers after 11 p.m. are after booze, cigarettes, and lottery tickets. Dog tracks. Horse tracks. Atlantic City. Las Vegas. Carson City. Cruise ship and steamboat gambling everywhere you look. And some other new form of gambling being fiercely forced your way by some "entrepreneur." Offshore betting in the tens of millions every weekend. Poker on TV. Gambling facitilies at ALL major US military posts or bases. ON BASE. Often almost 24/7 access.
You say, "Who cares? Not my problem." Really? You say, "If others decide to implode on their own, what do I care? It does not impact my life."
WRONG. Sadly you, me, and others who wind up trying in small or maybe big ways to pick up the pieces.
Health care costs. Failed legitimate businesses. Civic decay. Bailouts. Monies for orphanages. Foster care programs. Many ongoing rehab programs. And, yes, full state bailouts. (Nevada - coming soon) Lack of trust for law enforcement, public officials, politicians. Dealing with criminals who now have nothing thru their own stupid gambling losses.
All of this officially government/dear leaders sanctioned. Smiled upon. Revenue generators/winners.
Uh, right-o.
Your nation LOVES vice. Your politicians get off on it.
Is there any wonder that the end of the republic is quite near?
John| 11.30.11 @ 6:04PM
You can improve your odds.Take the previous two sets of winning numbers and eliminage them from the numbers to be chosen.Roughly 20 times a year,those same numbers WON'T appear in the next drawing.
Curtis Rasmussen| 11.30.11 @ 7:51PM
The previous draws have nothing to do with the next draw. It's not like BlackJack, where some seen cards can be out of play on the next round.
In the lottery, the odds of drawing the same numbers again is the same as drawing any other set of numbers, which is astronomically small.
POST American| 11.30.11 @ 10:40PM
----STILL waiting for that FIRST article
detailing the KEY role of our ultra rich,
TAX FREE, 'benny violent', EUGENICS
and culture and sovereignty subversion
funding, engineering, directing
and driving foundations and NGOs.
An entire century of COUNTER--fit
'HIS--story', ncluding world wars, Bolshevik,
Nazi and, even now, RED Chinese genocide,
staged depressions and multiple CON-flicts
are lying on their doorstep.
The Globalist RED China sellout and TREASON OP
-------------------IS REAL---------------------
----------------HUAC/ Nuremberg 2012---------------
--------------------is soon to be even MORE REAL
SGT Tony| 12.1.11 @ 3:58AM
I don't think criminalizing vices is the way to go. Whether something is a crime or not will not deter those that seek it. Instead, why not try to teach morals and limits?
I'll admit, I've gone to the casinos around Phoenix, and I made a trip to Las Vegas with my mother. Both she and I have the same idea on gambling, we don't win. But we have a grand ole time playing the nickel slots. We set ourselves a limit, typically 20 bucks, and when it's gone, we're done. Were we forced by someone to set these limits? No, we were raised to understand that gambling can be fun, but it's unrealistic to assume you're going to win.
Prostitution and drugs? Again, not a soul in my family has this issue. We all see drugs as damaging our brains and there are all sorts of good natural highs, like laughter. And we have pity for the hookers.
Again, this is simply the way we were raised. No one forced us to say no. In fact, as kids, the anti this and anti that bored us, since we already had no reason to do these things.
As far as making it a crime, why bother. Those that are going to do it, will. In fact, making it a crime will draw MORE people into doing it, simply for the thrill of 'forbidden vices'. It's human nature to want what is denied.
Since the war on drugs began, drug use has risen.
Even during prohibition, alcohol was readily available.
Prostitution has been illegal for decades, yet there are still those, man and woman, that sell themselves.
Gambling is as old as the human race. We gamble our lives everyday, just on the commute to work. What difference is there between this and gambling money?
No, the only answer to these problems is to have morals, but not morals forced on us by others. Teach your children to understand the dangers, and they will make the right decisions.
But let a nanny state force their views of right and wrong on you, and watch how many do the wrong.
(pardon me if I rambled)