THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 14, 1996 TAG: 9601130004
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: PERRY MORGAN
LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines
Gov. George Allen has been vigorous in promoting Virginia as a family-values state and himself as herald of a new and wholesome conservatism. In his speech to the General Assembly last week he cited Virginians as ``principled and generous'' and spoke of their exceptional character.
It was, therefore, jarring to learn that the idea of goosing lottery revenues by offering citizens new enticements to gamble had found its way into his state budget for the next two years. Aides and friends were quick to say that the governor wasn't actually endorsing richer and chancier lottery games, one of which could involve nonstop betting. Some seemed embarrassed, and expressed hope the games would be aborted. All the same, $75 million in projected revenues from them turned up in the budget along with ways to spend it. This seemed at best an exercise in having it both ways.
If so, excuses could be found. Virginians, after all, approved institution of a state lottery, and the State Lottery Board is empowered to put out fresh bait. Without new lures, players grow bored with losing and revenue growth becomes stagnant. It's at that time, as an ad executive with a lottery account once explained, that ``we want to feed the consumers' need for fun and excitement, propelling the fantasy which motivates them to buy the next ticket.''
It's feeding time in Virginia. Once in double digits, revenue growth from the lottery is now running at 1 percent to 3 percent annually. Barring onset of acute shame among the state's leaders, the next hype for the state lottery will be keno and/or Powerball.
If structured loosely, keno can be played nonstop - ``a lottery every five minutes'' as a player in Maryland defined it. Powerball is a national lottery drawing bets from 21 states and offering jackpots which on occasion top $100 million. The stimulus for addiction is obvious in both games. But as a lottery spokesperson told Virginian-Pilot reporters David Poole and Margaret Edds, ``the next logical games in the progression are Powerball and keno, in terms of being good revenue generators.''
Ah, the progression - the offering of ever-larger pipe dreams in order to keep the suckers hooked. Why not, one wonders, skip Powerball (odds of winning: 1 in 55 million) and go directly to slot machines and/or state-owned casinos? Why, indeed, shouldn't the state aggressively promote the sale of whisky, another source of revenue, or tobacco products from which it also profits? The answer, one supposes, is that by doing so it would incur social costs and the appearance of shabby behavior. But is the lottery really different and, if so, how? The question begs the attention of all those who share in shaping the reputation of the commonwealth and its standards of public life.
The fact that citizens approved a lottery doesn't mean that the state has to go whole hog in promoting gambling. ``Progression'' from the first scratch-off ticket to Pick 3, Pick 4, Cash 5 and Lotto twice weekly has been pretty fast; so has been the pace of sales which are nearing $1 billion a year, a sum from which in fiscal 1994 the state took $311 million to spend on education.
There's no reason to make the highest function of the state more dependent on legalized pandering. The case for increased spending on education has been made. The old-fashioned - and the conservative way - to get the money is to raise taxes, or not reduce them when revenue is needed.
Conservatives teach that citizens should be aware of taxes; they want John Q. to feel the government's hand in his pocket as a means of knowing where the money's going. The lottery is a means of obscuring the cost of government and of shifting a significant part of it onto the shoulders of the foolish and the desperate. In Chicago, lottery billboards in ghettoes offer the promise that ``This could buy your ticket out.'' Keno and Powerball are steps in the ``progression'' that sinks a state to that depth. MEMO: Mr. Morgan is a former publisher of The Virginian-Pilot. by CNB