What did you expect from the carnies at the lottery? A frank discussion? The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth? This ain't no courtroom. This is Public Relations, and the Arkansas Lottery pays people to spin the numbers. Whatever their latest line, it will always be just another variation of "Step right up, suckers." And there's still one born every minute.
Doubt it? See the news story on the front page of Sunday's paper. There you'll find a solid story about (a) the money received and (b) the money paid out by the lottery. Specifically, which counties spend the most on the lottery per person, and which counties have the most kids going to college on lottery scholarships, again per person.
It was eye-opening, as Michael Wickline's stuff usually is. More interesting to some of us, because it made the point of the news story so easy to grasp, was the graphic that went with the article. Which is why we've reprinted it today just over there on the right.
There are a few exceptions here and a few surprises there . . . . but for the most part you can see which people in which counties are spending the most money on the lottery. And which people in which counties are collecting the biggest returns when they send their kids to college.
Notice the orange counties in the top graphic. They're the ones that spend the most per person on lottery tickets. And they tend to cluster in the Delta, surely the poorest part of the state. Over in the piney hills, poor little Nevada County is about as far west as the lottery's big spenders per capita go. And nobody would confuse Nevada County with one of the state's more affluent counties. As usual, the state's biggest market per sucker tends to be co-extensive with its poverty belt. The words "poor" and "sucker" just seem to have a natural tendency to go together here in the Natural State--as they do in many a depressed part of the American economy.
Who is not spending a lot on the lottery? Notice all the blue in northwestern Arkansas, which has been booming in recent decades.
Now take a look at the other graphic. The one on the bottom. Who's collecting most from the lottery in terms of college scholarships? Now the orange counties start popping up in the north and north-central part of the state.
What can you do next time somebody tries to tell you that lotteries don't hit the folks who can least afford it the hardest‚ or that the lottery's scholarships don't redistribute the wealth, all right--from the poor to the rich, from the down-and-out to the middle and upper classes? Just ask them to take a gander at these two color-coded maps. The evidence is indisputable. It's . . . graphic.
The high muck-a-mucks at the lottery can't justify this injustice no matter how smoothly they dodge and weave. Or just try to evade the whole question. Here's what one spokesflack at the lottery told the paper when asked for reasons why those who live in the poorest part of the state bought the most lottery tickets:
"We're not going to speculate on sales performance of individual counties, except to note that sales numbers are a function of several variables, including, but not limited to, population 18 or over, number of lottery retailers and retail traffic."
Goodness gracious. Even a direct if unresponsive No Comment would have been more honest. Because it's hard to believe said PR person doesn't know what's really going on. The evidence is right there--for all to see.
But honest answers wouldn't qualify as good PR--not at the state lottery. Honest answers like these: "The poorest people buy the most tickets because poverty and gullibility go hand-in-hand," or "Better educated people with more income know better than to invest in a rip-off like the Arkansas Lottery." No, such language isn't allowed at the state's biggest scam.
Long gone are the days of Big Ernie Passailaigue, the Arkansas Lottery's original head huckster. Remember when he would tell a room full of people (and press) that the lottery's latest games could be predatory? No wonder he had to go. There is such a thing as being all too truthful when it comes to the describing how the lottery really works. Instead, the undeniable must be denied, or at least evaded.
No, it's better if the PR types at the Arkansas Lottery and official Sucker's Game don't speculate about why counties in the Delta wind up sending what money their poorest people have to the better-off parts of the state.
Why not just tell the truth? These poor suckers might as well load up what money they do have and ship it by the boxcar north by northwest. Which is how the poor get poorer and the rich get richer, or at least collect more of the lottery's take.
It never has taken much smarts to figure out that the Arkansas Lottery is one big scam that takes advantage of the poor to benefit the better-off. These latest figures--and graphics--are just more proof. The case against the Lottery was proven some time ago, first in theory, then in practice. And it's still a racket.
The only mystery remaining is how the people running it sleep o'night.
Editorial on 08/13/2014