Lottery

[Kapohocat]

Why doesnt Hawaii have a lottery?

Eight of us had hours of fun with $10 worth of tickets for the Mega Millions bought by a Puna Webber who lives on East Coast

Needless to say there are some funny pics on our FB's - as we all had to do our lucky rituals and post the pic!



Catherine Dumond
Blue Water Project Management 808 965-9261

Dakineworkers.com

[Bullwinkle]

our local lottery would be the council elections - sorry could not resist

A lottery supporting the foster kids maybe?

[TrevorKane]

Beware of "Lottery Funded" lies - the Florida Lottery has "raised $10B for education" - over 20+ years, so $500M/year average (the annual budget for Dade county schools alone is over $4B per year, it's a big county, but there are 66 other counties in Florida - total public school budget in FL is likely about $40B), and what it really has done is relieve the counties of levying that same money in property taxes, putting education funding on a (slightly) less predictable footing, and giving the state additional power over the county school districts since they control more of their funds.

Oh don't worry, even without the lottery the State controls the flow of federal funds to the counties, to the tune of several billion per year.

[JerryCarr]

Lotteries are a form of voluntary taxation, usually being disproportionately paid into by the less educated, lower income segment of the population. States which have started lotteries dedicated to education or some other worthy sounding endeavor have found their politicians all too willing to raid the lottery income stream for less attractive purposes. They don't always get their way, but sometimes they do. In my former state of Georgia, the lottery income is statutorily limited to college scholarships for kids with 'B' or better averages and kindergarten programs. Due to stagnating growth in the Georgia Lottery and budget cuts that resulted in huge increases in college tuition and fees, they are now having to decide whether to cut the scholarship payments or raise the grade point average required to get them.

Steering this back to Hawaii, I would add that given the almost legendary propensity for gambling among Hawaii residents, a lottery could have a lot of negative consequences. Although lotteries are relatively benign in terms of crime, opening the door to legalized gambling of any sort could be a Pandora's Box of compulsive behavior. On the other hand, there is a huge amount of legal gambling money leaving the state on those planes to Vegas and a whole lot of illegal gambling going on right now. It's really complicated.

[PaulW]

How about a fancy casino on Oahu where you have to show out-of-state ID to be allowed entry? I like the idea of voluntary taxation, especially by tourists - and this would probably increase their number and their average expenditure.

[oink]

I agree with Jerry. I also think Hawaii is too far to compete as a gambling destination. I doubt the out of state ID thing would be legal.

Pua`a
S. FL
Big Islander to be.

[David M]

Yes we should. Call it voluntary taxation I'm all for it. One can only hope this method of wealth redistribution equals the amount of taxes they sucked out of the system. I'd also agree to a major casino type complex on Kaho#699;olawe. Get around any legal issues by letting OHA run it. Located here could minimize the effects on other islands and Hawaiian Air would be making up for those cancelled flights to Los Vegas. While I'd be concerned about the politics we know we'll be screwed no matter what, but maybe this venture could be so successful that legislatures would have enough play money they'd get embarrassed.

David

Ninole Resident

[Greg]

Only acceptable if they let me run it.

[csgray]

My understanding is that it would take a constitutional amendment to have legal gambling in Hawaii.

Carol

[Laughing_girl]

So in order to do a lottery, we would have to legalize gambling?