govt reverses Robin Hood again...

Well, not quite-- but close enough...

By some accounts (with interesting or patronizing assumptions), gambling is akin to taxation. Of course, if we extend appropriate dignity to the human person, we must allow that it is a voluntary behavior-- even if we tweak that a bit by allowing for some monopoly power on behalf of the government which may run it or information fraudulently twisted or withheld. Thus, gambling cannot easily be reduced to coercive taxation.

But what does the government do with the revenues it obtains from its gambling activities?

In Indiana, we give it disproportionately to those with higher incomes!

Here are some of the key findings of four reporters with the Indy Star in an article published in the C-J...

An Indianapolis Star review of the Hoosier Lottery has found that while lower-income players disproportionately fund the lottery, the state transfers lottery profits disproportionately to the wealthiest counties.

It's a quirk that seems to punish the very people the state counts on to fuel a revenue source that last year topped $217 million....

The inequity is caused by the formula used by the state. Lottery profits in Indiana are not returned to counties on a per capita basis or based on where tickets are purchased. Instead, the bulk of the money is returned to local government based on the assessed value of motor vehicles in the county. In other words, the more valuable the cars, boats and RVs in your county, the more money you receive....

To understand the inequity, one needs only to look at neighboring Marion and Hamilton counties. Marion County players spend $3.55 on lottery tickets for every dollar returned from a pool of money funded mostly by lottery profits and tracked by the State Budget Agency. Hamilton County, the state's richest, spends only $1.19 on lottery tickets for every dollar that comes back....

Lottery players spent more than $800 million last year, but the Hoosier Lottery returns just 61 percent of sales as prizes -- not unusual among state lotteries. That's much less than other forms of legal gambling, such as slot machines, which have a return of about 90 percent...

The article also includes some indirect evidence that the poor spend (absolutely) more on the lottery than higher income classes. The research I've seen-- with direct evidence-- is that income classes spend about the same per person, and thus, disproportionately proportions of their incomes.

Then, if you're going to get excited about this, why not go nuts about payroll/FICA taxes which result in the loss of 15.3 cents of EVERY dollar earned by the working poor and middle class.