Sports Betting Now Legal

Yes. But K-12 is always the big seller.

 

Of course, add "for the kids" and you can get away with just about anything.

 

Why does every tax have to be earmarked? Alabama is terrible about it. Completely kneecaps the state's ability to be flexible if funding lines fail to meet expectations.

 

It really doesn’t matter because they can simply reduce spending from other sources if they dedicate this to health or schools. Just like lottery revenues

 

Oh look, another poor-tax stream.

 

If they are spending significant money on sports betting and lottery tickets it isn't taxes that's keeping them poor.

 

I'm not a fan of state-sponsored gambling, but any tax revenues derived from it are 100% optionally paid.

Pretty sure I've paid $0 in lottery taxes since its inception in TN. If it's not $0, it's not much above it.

 

If you don't see the moral hazard, I don't think I am going to convince of it. The desperate and foolish shouldn't bear most of the burden of education and social programs, they should be the ones being targeted to receive them.

I have also never bought a lottery ticket. I don't object to them being available, I object to integrating them as essential funding mechanisms for core services. We know gambling is addictive. It may start out as a choice but at some point people can, have, and will on occasion develop a real problem.

It's whatever. I don't like the government becoming overly incentivized to push vice. I don't want to tell adults they can't gamble responsibly either.

 

I fully understand the moral hazard. Tis' why I voted against it in 2002 and am doing all I can to make sure my kids don't require one penny of it for college. That said, at some point, people are going to do what they want to and I can't hold their hand.

However, I at least assume that sports gambling likely involves higher income classes than the lottery.

 

I understand the dilemma, but the reality is that for most of the participants that money was going to be pissed away on something equally worthless, regardless. Gambling addiction is a fair point, though.

 

There are definitely plenty of well off people betting on sports (although it's probably mostly the poor people that really dig themselves in a hole by overdoing it). It's also not that hard to do it with or without this SC decision.

 

I don't think I've met a single person that bets on sports that thinks they are going to make tons of money. Most I know admit they'll lose but think its fun to do it. I'm sure that there are those that think they are going to strike it big, but I don't know them.

As for the lottery, I've met plenty of people who think this is their ticket to wealth, and it's sad.

 

I don't get it. It's universally understood that the odds are impossibly bad.

 

Nor do I. I guess if you spend enough, it increases your chances of winning.

 

Desperation. Also the human being is programmed to expect success. When I have played the lottery, there is a good portion of me that is convinced I have the winning ticket.

And I have known a lot of poor people that are convinced that that $10 to win $200 million is a far better bet than putting that $10 into a managed fund, which of course, is not true.

 

But becoming dependent on revenue from it leads to the state encouraging it, and no longer being a neutral regulator.

 

better cut alcohol and cigarette taxes too then

 

I think that’s more of a problem of feeling obligated to spend every available cent and then some.

 

If we earmark alcohol and tobacco taxes to fund schools or basic services, that is a mistake. Period.

 

money is fungible. earmarking extra taxes doesn't matter. 100% of the lotto proceeds in california go to the schools. all they did was cut funding to the schools by the amount of the lotto proceeds.