Just one more. Just one more. This will be the mantra of many of the poor and underprivileged people that are often targeted by the lottery when it becomes legal in North Carolina later this week. After much controversy and deliberation, North Carolina will finally join the rest of the east coast in legalizing a state-run lottery with the proceeds going to education. Whether you agree with the lottery or not, it is a solution to the North Carolina budget crisis.
The North Carolina Lottery for Education Coalition has estimated that the lottery could raise more than $400 million annually for education in the state. For a state that is finding it difficult to provide the most basic public service of education, this is a lot of money. With our four bordering states Georgia, Virginia, South Carolina and Tennessee carrying the lottery, North Carolina residents are spending about $81 million trying to hit it big in these other states.
One of the main arguments against the lottery is the fact that the state lottery is likely to attract players disproportionately from lower-income households. This argument is one of the most absurd to me; the state lottery is not a tax, they will not be forcing these people to play and should not be held accountable if they do not know how to play within reason. We do not make it illegal for a company to sell a product that might appeal to lower income people; it is not the temptations that are the problem but peoples inability to set limits. If people who cannot afford to play the lottery play it excessively anyway, they would just waste money on something else if they were not spending it on the lottery. Why not have that money go to something good, such as a much needed public service, than to any other random gambling endeavors.
Another popular argument against the lottery is that gambling is immoral and should not be set up by the government. People have abortions, drink alcohol, have legal unions with members of the same sex and many other things that some people would consider immoral, but this does not stop them from being legal, and gambling’s legality shouldn’t be based on moral judgments either. You cannot govern morality, and for people to say that the lottery will spread the immorality of gambling is a little far fetched. If some people do not agree with gambling then they do not have to participate in the lottery.
There are good arguments against the lottery; however, I do not feel that they are enough to justify not having a state run lottery. North Carolina has held off for much longer than it’s neighbors, and now with our residents playing the lottery in other states and with North Carolina’s budget crisis, it is time that we get the lottery and accept the good with the bad.
With such aggressive advertising that will be done, it could send the message to North Carolina’s youth that the way to get ahead is not to work hard and study but to gamble. The lottery also puts the government in a position to support and promote something that many of its citizens think is unethical. Amid all the controversy, the lottery will still be available to play starting March 30 and us students will be left to decide if we should play or not. My advice to you is to save up some spare change and buy a few lottery tickets because you never know — you may hit it big.
E-mail Amy at viewpoint@technicianonline.com
