A Fresh Proposal

I'm not the most sophisticated economist around. I'll admit that. In fact, I really have no idea what I'm talking about. But, I have a general philosophy of fiscal conservatism that shapes my views on specific economic policy. With that in mind, I had a thought. Why don't we have a federal lottery system? I'm probably missing some obvious reason why it wouldn't work, but think about it. I live in Georgia, where literally tens of thousands of students get nearly-free college education funded primarily by a state lottery. The "Mega Millions" game, which currently involves about 15 states, can afford to give away $12 million two times per week, and it pays for state programs as well. So, let's say we had a federal lottery spanning 50 states. It could require an eight-number match to make it a little harder to win. But, the starting point for a payout could be $50 million. People would certainly buy tickets.

I can think of two main obstacles to this idea, but I still think it could work. First, a lot of people would say that it's just a predatory program that gets people with no discretionary income to buy a piece of paper in hopes of winning big. That doesn't bother me much. If John Doe down the street spends $100 a week of his janitorial salary on lottery tickets, that's his problem. The second problem is that a federal lottery program would force states that currently do not have lotteries to join in. I generally don't agree with having the federal government force programs on state governments. But, when I think about the volume of revenue that a lottery system would generate, I still think it could work. Again, I'm probably missing something obvious. But at first thought, I think it could be a way to bring in billions of dollars annually without raising taxes. (More on taxes later today or tomorrow). Feedback (from both of you who read this site) is more than welcome.