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From: acton@ubc-cs.UUCP (Donald Acton)
Newsgroups: can.politics
Subject: Re: Lotteries
Message-ID: <1147@ubc-cs.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 11-Jul-85 17:02:23 EDT
Article-I.D.: ubc-cs.1147
Posted: Thu Jul 11 17:02:23 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 11-Jul-85 18:41:45 EDT
References: <1121@ubc-cs.UUCP> <1110@mnetor.UUCP> <695@lsuc.UUCP> <1218@mnetor.UUCP> <702@lsuc.UUCP> <1243@utcsri.UUCP>
Reply-To: acton@ubc-cs.UUCP (Donald Acton)
Distribution: can
Organization: UBC Department of Computer Science, Vancouver, B.C., Canada
Lines: 54
Summary: 

In article <1243@utcsri.UUCP> clarke@utcsri.UUCP (Jim Clarke) writes:
> A rational person who knows something about probability and has
>alternative ways to improve his or her situation does not buy lottery tickets.
>Therefore to buy lottery tickets you must be either (1) stupid or (2) hope-
>lessly poor.  I consider it immoral for politicians who are neither stupid
>(in spite of our common prejudices) nor poor to offer this kind of temptation
>to people whose money would be better spent buying milk.

To suggest that all people buy lottery tickets because they are hopelessly
poor or stupid is a rather condescending attitude to adopt towards a large
segment of our society. Many people buy lottery tickets as a form of 
entertainment fully realizing that they won't win. While anticipating the
draw they can dream about what they would do if they won all that money
and that has a certain entertainment value. Yes, I know you don't need
a lottery ticket to dream, but that ticket makes the probability of that
dream coming true a lot higher than if you didn't have a ticket. I don't want
to leave the impression that the only hope or dreams that these people
have is the 'weekly lottery' but instead that it is a fun thing to do just
like going to a movie, or going out for a beer with friends on a Friday
evening so that you can kill off a few brain cells. People who are
otherwise rational may smoke, drink, ingest hallucinogens, eat to excess,
or read the Globe and Wail. All these activities are viewed by their
participants as enjoyable and entertaining even if the actions  are of a
dubious nature. As a result there is no reason to suggest that lottery
tickets won't be bought by otherwise rational people even if they know
something about probability and aren't poor.

It is unfortunate that people buy lottery tickets for the reasons that
Jim has outlined. It is also unfortunate, but true, that some of the types
of people who buy lottery tickets instead of milk also buy cigarettes and 
alcohol which is just as big a waste of money.  You can't legislate
common sense and even if you could I don't think you should.
If you decide to ban government lotteries do you get rid of bingos and 
the lotteries run by the Lions and Kinsmen too? Do you ban lotteries
even when the vast majority of people who buy tickets aren't
poor or stupid?  Are lotteries themselves an immoral act or is it just the 
promotion of them by the politicians/advertisers as a panacea for personal
and governmental financial problems that is immoral?

>
>I'd rather pay higher taxes, thanks.
>

I'd like the government to reduce its spending all round and then we
wouldn't have to contemplate the possibility of more lotteries or
increased taxation. (Maybe we could even have reduced taxes, but that
is a concept foreign to politicians.)


   Donald Acton


PS I have never bought a lottery ticket but on occasion have been guilty
   of reading the Globe and Wail.