So it's come to this: "a deficit reduction lotto". The CT Legislature is looking to fill the chasms, not holes, in the budget, by any means possible and if some of the ideas are unveiled during Problem Gambling Awareness Week, well, what were the odds of that happening, do you suppose?
I'm still trying to understand when gambling became 'gaming' and why that happened. It's like the difference in definitions between 'disposable' and 'discretionary' income. Sort of a Good Girls Don't distinction that's wasted on me. I always thought the latter was a reference to the folks with the super fast computers, the "Mask of Frodo" game cartridges and the rather limited social horizons. But now we use it in Connecticut, to talk about casinos and big ticket lottery prizes.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average might be on a (momentary) downward glide slope, so your broker could suggest adding lotto tickets to your portfolio. When you talk about diversification, you could mean a mix of powerball and scratch tickets. Why not? After all, as is all gambling (sorry, gaming), it's fun until you lose more than you have and more than you can get back no matter how hard you play. That's when you discover while you were playing there were other forces working and it's not nearly as much fun and games as you thought.
The CT Lottery took in about 998.5 million (= real close to a Billion) dollars last year. Once all the revenue goes into the General Fund, good luck finding the buck you spent on that Pick Three Ticket. But it doesn't change the question: what happens to the money? I have no idea how much money the agreement with the two casinos generates for the state coffers but I imagine it makes the lotto sales figures look like egg money.
All across the state, we read about city's and towns laying off employees and cutting back services--from New Haven to Hartford, maybe to where you live, too. In Norwich, everyone involved in trying to manage next year's budget formulation is approaching the idea as if it were a live grenade. And can you blame them? But our state legislators, and Governor, think that offering to work a day without pay, or to return 10% of the majority party's caucus budget or a freeze on buying supplies (any and/or all of these) will 'close the budget gap'.
We live in households with our family, right? And we earn paychecks and have to pay for housing, utilities, food and all kinds of goods and services. When we run out of money, there's not a lot we can do about it, as it's still winter and the Big Bucks Bush in the backyard isn't in bloom yet and we have no baby teeth left for the Tooth Fairy to help us out, so we've come to the place where the road and the sky collide.
We are addicted to spending and we need to decide if we're ready to go cold turkey in order to kick the habit. The most effective way through the current fiscal situation is to spend less money on everything. It's far more honest than travelling up I-95 North, past Darien, and catching Governor M. Jodi or Gentleman Jim running a friendly game of Three Card Monte at the rest stop. Welcome to the Land of Steady Habits.
-bill kenny
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