State Lotteries Among Most Abusive Type of Gambling, Study Says

A study shows that lottery gambling is disproportionately supported by poor and minorities, but foes of casino gambling are relatively silent.

A survey in South Carolina shows that minorities and the poor are essentially the most prone to take part in state lotteries. Many states and spiritual organizations blithely support lotteries, that are returning them revenue, while damning other kinds of gambling less harmful to the economically disadvantaged.

South Carolina's statistics, kept in the beginning by law but recently continued voluntarily by the lottery operators, shows that, while lottery players comprise the similar percentages racially and economically because the general population, the numbers become skewed when adjusted for frequency of play.

Blacks make up lower than 20 percent of the state's population, but 38.4 percent of frequent lottery players, who participate greater than once every week. People in households earning not up to $40,000 a year make up 28 percent of the state, while accounting for 53.4 percent of frequent players.

Some lottery spokesmen suggested a cultural link some of the frequent lottery players existed to the old numbers racket.

What remained unexplained was how state lotteries, with their odds removed from true and their possibilities of winning some of the worst this side of three-card monte, are given the sort of free pass by anti-gambling groups while far safer games are demonized. Surely the revenues that churches and states receive from lotteries has nothing to do with the silence of the ethical police.

Published on July 26, 2009 by VirginiaMaddox

Read More... [Source: Religious Gambling News]