Oregon at age 147: sick
The Oregon "lottery" just gets weirder and weirder. Now the state is selling online blackjack that you can play from your home computer.
I'm sorry, but when we voted in a lottery back in the '80s, we didn't authorize this. Every branch of state government should be hanging its head in shame.
I hope Tony Soprano is enjoying his cut of the blackjack take as much as the public schools are. But don't worry, Dale Penn has been assigned to find the real killer.
| Posted at 8:07 PM | Permalink |
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Comments (10)
It's meth for politicians. "Aww dad, can't I have some more? Washington just passed another K-12 levy and I can't pull my pants up."
Posted by Cicolini | February 16, 2006 10:17 PM
Of course, it's not actually b----jack. It's some kind of bizarro online scratch-it.
I don't understand how this doesn't violate the ban against internet gambling.
Posted by Kari Chisholm | February 16, 2006 10:57 PM
You scratch a ticket, get a code, then come home and play an online game that is called bl*ckjack and has most of the same features as a game of real bl*ckjack. Call it whatever you want -- it's a disgrace. Just another one for the Teddy K. portfolio.
Posted by Jack Bog | February 16, 2006 11:34 PM
I just think the State should go all the way and start an online casino. Online gambling is the future and there's no reason all our US gambling money should go to England and Australian websites.
But I'm a bit of a libertarian and believe people should be free to make there own choices, whether those be positive or negative.
Posted by justin m | February 17, 2006 5:54 AM
I realize it's been said a thousand times, but we can not rely on Lottery or assume it is our new tax savior. Rather than make a large percentage of our budget reliant on Lottery, most of the funds should be set aside to create a safety net, rainy-day fund, or the like. Maybe we can pull our credit rating up if our funding infrustructure is revamped. Maybe realizing the Lottery is a stealth-tax on the bottom 50% would help too.
From a politician's point of view, it's so much easier to roll out new games than it is to get people to approve adaquate funding into our tax code. In some ways it's funny... the people who think our politicians need to run EVERYTHING by us via ballot measures are typically the same ones who want to give BushCo a blank check without oversight at the federal level. How convenient.
Posted by Tk | February 17, 2006 9:22 AM
Anything raised by the tax on the stupid (aka Oregon Lottery) will not address the ongoing shrinkage of tax revenue state-wide. It's too little and it's still dedicated revenue....to "economic development".
Hey... Maybe they can use Lottery funds to complete the tram *rimshot*?
This is the wave of the future. The electorate is supporting it as a "sin tax" on those stupid enough to participate. The thing is, the electorate is usually as ignorant as the users. Most of them don't have the slightest as to how much is raised or how it is required to be used.
If we keep going this way, reducing property taxes, refusing sales and income taxes, then we'd better start being a whole lot nicer to those stinkin' smokers and woeful alcoholics, 'cause they'll be supporting our public institutions through their bad habits.
Posted by godfry | February 17, 2006 10:45 AM
Godfrey, my man, 'tis nothing but a very apt and sad commentary on the mediocrity Oregonians complacently accept. Such a sorry state of affairs, and not a leader in sight with the vision or the balls to to right the fiscal mess. It's an unacceptable embarrassment, but that's what we have.
Posted by veiledorchid | February 17, 2006 12:06 PM
No. Wrong. We already rely on gambling as a major source of state revenue. Inducing gambling as bread and roses simply undermines the safety net, causing stupid people who can't solve problems in the first place to get stuck with big ass problems, which we then, in the form of evictions, bankruptcies, homelessness, and all the other symptoms of chronic poverty, collectively pay for. So with combination apathetic and amoral voters, the state government is in a sick state.
Note: Dave Fronmeyer thinks a career at the Oregon legislature will be more attractive to smart young things if the Senate meets annually. Tis pure nose-picking and based on vapors. There isn't a solution on the horizon folks.
Posted by cicolini | February 17, 2006 2:31 PM
at the time the lottery was being floated as an idea in 1980, it was scratchoff tickets. now we have half the bars in the state dependant on lottery to stay open. So the State, thru OLCC profits two ways. If we don't get your bucks with booze, we do it with gambling. I expect they ( the State)will rationalize legalized prostitution and drug dealing as " an alternative source of educational funding".
the State encouraging gambling nets a few bucks at the front end. it takes away from its citizens and offers little in return. Where is all that wonderful "economic development"? Even Starbucks aint hiring..
Posted by joe adamski | February 17, 2006 4:23 PM
Warning about loading this b----jack game from the lottery: Spysweeper says it is spyware, and is a medium threat. That was enough of a warning for me, I removed the program immdiately.
Come to Oregon, where we have more ways to gamble than Nevada.
Posted by Tex | February 17, 2006 8:53 PM