Letter: Don't promote lottery winners
Lottery winners Margaret and Wallace Bryan celebrate at a news conference after winning $3 million from a Bonanza scratch-off game they bought at the 7-Eleven in Bayport. (Feb. 24, 2012) Credit: James Carbone
I must object to Newsday's continuing coverage of a non-story: that state-run gambling enterprise called the lottery. The latest egregious example is "Checks in hand, lottery winners plan trips" [News, Feb. 25].
Besides the human interest element, this is not newsworthy just because the state throws a news conference and dangles a big check at the cameras. Newsday is providing free advertising for a scheme that enriches the state at the expense of its citizens, often its poorest citizens.
Although the lottery may be an entertaining diversion for the more well-off, it is in some respects an onerous tax on the poor. We should be encouraging people to limit their gambling, not expand it, especially in these times.
The lottery benefits from the fact that people think they have a reasonable chance to win, and stories like this only reinforce the notion, even though the odds of hitting it big are vanishingly small. The state is addicted to the money from this morally dubious source, and Newsday shouldn't enable it further.
Anthony Caniano, Kings Park
