The Idaho lottery ticket locations just across the Utah border laughingly call their location the home of the Utah Lottery. The Idaho Lottery has made $790 million for Idaho Public Schools and the Permanent Building Fund. Ironically, Utah has problems funding its schools and infra structure. Every time an initiative comes up for a Utah Lottery, the Church rears up in opposition. I believe the Church fears a loss of tithing revenue, and not a fear of the moral decline of the Utah population – which they usually invoke to defeat such efforts.

The people here in Utah contribute around 10%, if they’re Mormon. Some of the money is spent in Utah but a good portion of the money is spent to other locations, much like what happens when people ship their money to Idaho. Additionally, the Church is not a taxpayer, taking full advantage of their status. We are forced to support the organization with our State and Federal taxes. Which again I find highly ironic. The State and Federal government holds a gun to my head to force me to pay taxes that benefits an organization that is not required to pay, but yet some a**hole can complain about being forced to bake a cake and claim its an affront to his religious beliefs.

I think the church tithe and state lottery are very separate issues. Although gambling revenues can be touted as "income," I think lotteries and casinos are, on balance, a loss for society. On this issue, I'll side with LDS.

Now you've gone and made Las Vegas cry!

Agree; lotteries don't create wealth, they just re-distribute it.
"Winners" are the bureaucrats who administer it, and about 1/1000th of 1% of the players.

The bureaucrats who administer it get paid @ 100% !

Yep.

Some state rep here in CA tried to justify the lottery by saying that the lower-income folks who supplied most of the lottery funds didn't pay property taxes, so it was "only fair" some of their money supported the schools.

Gag.

<sarcasm/off>

My son has been researching a disturbing development: video game programmers are utilizing the algorithmic and psychological logic that slots used. People want "wins" (ammo reloads, candy,gold coins, treasure, crop yields, points, access to higher levels, etc.) and are awarded them fairly generously in early play. The gamer/user is conditioned to want and expect them, but they slow down. Eventually, out comes the gamer's credit card, and he'll buy extra ammo (or whatever) to continue the play and advance. Theoretically, you can earn all the points, ammo, gold coins, etc. to advance to higher levels, but in reality you can't. So they get you to pay for them.

Slots are perhaps the most intensely researched psychological gambit of all time. Now coming to your video game!

Me? "Pong" is plenty exciting!

I always hear casinos advertise that their slots are "looser".
Does that mean that slot machine payouts are not random and are subject to human manipulation ?

Oh no !

No. Slots return most of their take to players. A certain percent is kept by the house, which selects the payout rate. A house with a higher payout rate has looser slots. But the house still makes a profit.

The wins and losses in slots are not truly random. The house knows in advance how much it will win on average.

Lotteries are a tax on people who can't do math. :)

Lotteries are taxes on the poor and desperate. Winners are few. And just to keep the money coming in they parlay multi-million dollar payouts into ‘hope.’ This isn’t a moral issue to me. States have less need for being responsible when they can make up loses by gambling. Windfall.

The difference between a lottery and taxes is that in a lottery your contribution is voluntary, regardless of your economic status.

I think what finally swayed Maryland in favor of the lottery was the fact that our state was losing out to surrounding states (i.e. Delaware) that did have a lottery. Now we have both a lottery and casinos. Marylanders don't have to travel to indulge in vices anymore.

And yet only Nevada has brothels... Life...it's so unfair!

That the authorities are aware of, at least...

I am in facer of a lottery in Utah . It is a voluntary tax that is not some panacea by any means but it is revenue that can fund schools , Heath care and other areas. I have no problem putting down say ten bucks a week for a very slim chance but it's my money. Makes more sense than taxing food if people are concerned about taxes that harm poor people. I would also favor an increase in the gasoline tax. Even a small increase would fund better roads rather than the bumpy pothole mess that we now have. On this subject marijuana should also be legal and heavily taxed . I would rather the money pay for better schools and higher teacher pay than it going to my pot dealer so he can buy new skis,and a bigger tee Vee.Nobody likes taxes but if it's a voluntary tax like lotteries and taxes on what realy are luxury items like booze ,smokes and weed then no problem

Utah homeowners are high fiving each other for successfully fighting property tax increases. Let the poor pay for the schools.

I totally agree with legalizing recreational cannabis to help pay for schools and such, but that will never happen in Utah. I don't even think we'll get medical, even if the ballot initiative passes. The church will make sure of that, like everything else around here. God! I need to move out of this oppressive state!!

If there are scratch tickets in your state, take a look at the trash recepticles in, and sidewalks around, convenience stores. Where that 7-11 (or whatever) is located in upscale neighborhoods, you'll see only a few scratch tickets. If it's in a downside neighborhood, they're all over the place.

Sure it's voluntary, but it affects (I say, "victimize") the poor most.

Tiny little Malad City, Idaho sells more lottery tickets than anywhere else, Idaho.

Reason are the high number of Utahns driving across the border to buy their share of the Power and Mega ball lotteries.

I don't have a high regard for lotteries. Simply because they take advantage of the already disadvantaged.

But hey, this is the result of our Tennessee lottery:

https://www.tn.gov/collegepays/money-for-college/tn-education-lottery-programs/tennessee-hope-scholarship.html

And I know so many kids that the Hope Scholarship has helped. So I really do have to be grateful for the citizens of Alabama for supporting our Tennessee schools. And it is nice of Utahan's to support education in Idaho.

All the comments against the lottery and victimizing the poor are ridicules. If you want to worry about the poor worry about lack of health care, particularly for children. Worry about the tax structure. Worry about the college tuition issue that sends individuals into life long debt to obtain a college education.

These statistical studies are a joke. You should ask yourself, why would a poor person enter a lottery? Possibly the lottery odds are less staggering then lifting yourself out of poverty with a minimum wage job.

How hard is it to figure out why a person making $100,000 or more wouldn't enter a lottery?

There is too much religious moralism and not enough logic. Would you prefer that we go back to the old days with numbers runners and gangsters running lotteries? Somehow this old method would be more beneficial to the poor?

Too many issues in this country are governed by the moral police of religion.

By the way, some of you are already entered into one of the biggest lotteries - the hope of the resurrection lottery. I bet I can point to more Powerball winners then you "hope of the resurrection" lottery folks can.