The Charlotte Observer

Editorial - February 15, 2006
 

Just when you thought the state lottery story had been as sordid and deceptive as it could be, here comes the capper: Gov. Mike Easley tells the state auditor that some $200 million now being spent to reduce class sizes in lower grades and help at-risk pre-kindergartners will go back to the general fund and be replaced by lottery proceeds. That had been the plan all along, the governor explained.

Oh? We thought the plan was to add to, not replace, current spending on schools. So did Auditor Les Merritt. "There is a pretty big disconnect, I do believe, between what is the public perception and what the actual legislation allows about the uses of lottery revenue," he said.

Disconnect indeed. Lottery critic Elaine Mejia had another word for it: The public was "hoodwinked," she said.

Such shocking developments are nothing new. Remember how we got the lottery?

There weren't enough votes in the state House to create a lottery, so to woo support, lottery advocates offered a bill with tight controls on advertising and expenditures. To prevent TV commercials teaching kids how much fun it is to gamble, the bill prohibited advertising except at businesses where lottery tickets are sold.

Then the bill went to the Senate, where those tight controls were as popular as a prohibitionist at a beer bust. But Senate lottery proponents didn't just amend the House bill. Instead, they put some amendments to it in the proposed state budget. When the budget bill came to the House, members could not block a great expansion in lottery advertising except by voting against the state budget. Rather than oppose the budget, they swallowed the changes. The result? Instead of being confined to where lottery tickets are sold, lottery ads will blanket the state on TV.

The road to the lottery has been a ride through a cesspool. A former top aide to House Speaker Jim Black secretly worked for a lottery company while advising him. An appointee to the lottery board was found to have been on a lottery company payroll. Now the state will add hypocrisy to its list of offenses by hiring a company to craft ads that entice people to gamble without appearing to encourage gambling.

Get ready for more. In a column in the Observer in 2004, Alicia Hansen, a lottery expert at the Tax Foundation, warned that lottery revenue isn't always used as promised: "Money ostensibly raised for education can be spent on other things -- even in states where there is a `lockbox' protecting lottery revenue. Legislators can shuffle funds and allocate less money to education than they otherwise would, knowing lottery funds will make up the difference."

State governments don't just tolerate gambling today, they're its biggest promoters. They grow addicted to gambling money and routinely expand the variety of games and develop whizbang advertising to keep the cash flowing.

Maybe our state won't do the deceptive, destructive things some other states have done. Maybe our state won't forsake other values in pursuit of lottery profits. Maybe -- but that's not the way we'd bet. Look at the record so far.

http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/news/opinion/13874891.htm