Should Everyone Be Allowed to Buy Lottery Tickets?
Terry L. Mitchell
June 30, 2009
It makes me sick at my stomach whenever Iīm in line in a store behind someone who uses food stamps and/or WIC checks and also purchases lottery tickets. People who are on public assistance of that sort, along with those who live in publicly subsidized housing, should not be allowed to buy lottery tickets.
If they canīt get by without help from their fellow citizens (since thatīs what the īgovernmentī really is), they canīt afford such luxuries. Besides, many of them spend so much of their money on that kind of stuff that it often comes at the expense of the necessities of life for themselves and their families. And doesnīt that defeat the whole point of public assistance?
But how could a rule like that be enforced? Very simply. Each stateīs lottery department would issue a lottery permit to each of its citizens of majority age (18 or over). This permit would bear the personīs name, legal address, and some kind of identifying number. It would have to presented to a clerk (or whomever) in order to purchase lottery tickets. When one goes on the public dole, he or she would have to relinquish that permit. Once any of those people got back on their feet again, it would be returned to them.
Before you try to claim that this would be some kind of breach of the Constitution, keep in mind that buying lottery tickets is like driving itīs a privilege, not a right. State and local municipalities have a right to determine, in the best interest of society, who gets what privileges and who doesnīt. Placing a restriction on who can buy lottery tickets would be a step in the right direction for modern civilization.
If they canīt get by without help from their fellow citizens (since thatīs what the īgovernmentī really is), they canīt afford such luxuries. Besides, many of them spend so much of their money on that kind of stuff that it often comes at the expense of the necessities of life for themselves and their families. And doesnīt that defeat the whole point of public assistance?
But how could a rule like that be enforced? Very simply. Each stateīs lottery department would issue a lottery permit to each of its citizens of majority age (18 or over). This permit would bear the personīs name, legal address, and some kind of identifying number. It would have to presented to a clerk (or whomever) in order to purchase lottery tickets. When one goes on the public dole, he or she would have to relinquish that permit. Once any of those people got back on their feet again, it would be returned to them.
Before you try to claim that this would be some kind of breach of the Constitution, keep in mind that buying lottery tickets is like driving itīs a privilege, not a right. State and local municipalities have a right to determine, in the best interest of society, who gets what privileges and who doesnīt. Placing a restriction on who can buy lottery tickets would be a step in the right direction for modern civilization.