The Arkansas Scholarship Lottery, frankly, reminds us of the “Tax Me More” fund former Gov. Mike Huckabee once created so every Arkansan who supported higher taxes could contribute more money for operation of government.
The lottery, after all, is a voluntary tax to which Arkansas voters attached a little bit of fun (“You can’t win if you don’t play”) and a little bit of philanthropy (raising money to help people afford the growing cost of higher education).
Huckabee’s effort was meant to point out the hypocrisy of those who wanted to raise taxes, and it did. Only 56 people over a four-year period contributed $2077 to the Tax Me More Fund. The lottery, however, has been a wildly successful voluntary tax, estimated to generate $459 million in ticket sales in fiscal 2014, with $89. 5 million of that going to scholarships.
Some of the money not spent on scholarships goes to pay for the lottery’s operation, i.e. paid staff whose job it is to figure out how to convince more Arkansans to volunteer their money toward the worthy cause of higher education. Perhaps one day, in some distant future, the next generation of state residents will have achieved a higher enough level of education that they stand a better chance to get quality, well-paying jobs and to have enough sense to know the lottery doesn’t generally pay as an income-producing strategy, individually speaking.
For the Arkansas Lottery Commission, however, it does produce income, but not as much as it should next month, which of course will not be as much as it should the following month, and so on. So, people like Bishop Woolsey, the state lottery director, are constantly at work trying to reduce any friction that might slow the transfer of dollars from productive use to gambling.
One possible way is to allow using debit cards for the purchase of lottery tickets and scratch-off cards.
Under Arkansas law, the lottery is a cash-only business.
If a customer wants to add a lottery ticket to a debit or credit card purchase, it’s no dice at the hundreds of lottery retailers across the state. Mark Scott of Bentonville, a lottery commission member, recently described seeing a customer at a convenience store trying to add a lottery ticket to his debit-card purchase of other items. The clerk, obeying the rules, rejected it.
Oh, the humanity.
If the state is going to have a lottery to take from gamblers and give to college students, well, why not have it function in the modern world of financial transactions. Debit cards represent cash in a bank account, so what’s the problem?
Perhaps there is no problem, except the commission’s march toward easing the transaction is never ending.
Will it be long before credit card use is proposed? We hope commissioners and lawmakers alike recognize that’s an abusive step toward ruining some people’s lives. Gambling through debt should never become acceptable public Policy.
But debit cards? Hey, who is the state to get in the way of more easily separating a fool from his hard-earned money?
CASUALTIES OF WAR
To honor the men and women in our armed forces and remind our readers of their sacrifices, this newspaper is publishing Department of Defense announcements identifying Americans killed in active military operations.
Army Staff Sgt. Patrick H. Quinn, 26, of Quarryville, Pa., died Oct. 13, in Paktika Province, Afghanistan, of injuries suff ered when the enemy attacked his base withsmall-arms fire. He was assigned to 3rd Battalion, 10th Special Forces Group, Fort Carson, Colo.
Opinion, Pages 5 on 12/12/2013