After Christie's privatization, NJ lottery missing targets WASHINGTON (AP) - When Chris Christie privatized New Jersey's lottery two years ago, he said its new overseers would "modernize and maximize" the games. Instead, a lottery once ranked among the nation's top performers is now lagging for the second straight year, trailing its state income targets by $64 million seven months into the current fiscal year. Meanwhile, the company running it has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to hire lobbyists and a public relations firm with close ties to the governor. New Jersey lawmakers anticipated receiving nearly $1.04 billion in income from the lottery this year, a number reduced to just $955 million in a revised budget released this month. Having collected an estimated $510 million seven months into this fiscal year, the lottery is not on track to meet even its lowered expectations. The shortfalls could mean budget cuts to programs directly funded by the lottery system - such as after-school care, programs for veterans and education for the deaf - should the lottery's fortunes not improve. ---------------- Forget for the moment that state lotteries are a tax on the innumerate and should be abolished and replaced with a more fair tax. Who could have known that adding middle-men with the sole purpose of allowing them to skim money off the top would reduce returns? Seriously, who could have known? This is what privatization of government property and activities is really all about.
There are things government have no place being involved in - and lotteries are one of them. If you're basing your services on the income from separating the stupid, desperate, addicted and occasional gambler, you're a moron. If you then privatise that - on the basis you're still relying on it's income rather than taxing sales/profits/winnings on it - you're a moron to the power of imbecility. The money should've been designed to provide to charities, and then sold on licence with a defined percentage of takings to be distributed out. Everyone* wins them. Business gets profit, state gets bulk income to invest and residuals from taxation for services, charities get money. *Well, not most of the stupid, desperate, addicted and occasional gamblers.
Privatization has its purposes and makes a lot of sense in some situations, but it can also be ripe for abuse.
