Gambling as a form of Tax is wrong

I recently posted a blog about how the State of Texas was looking for ways to increase the tax base. They have expanded those areas where a sales tax could be imposed on service related items such as labor or “improved value”; what ever they can imagine can be taxed. Another area of interest, at least as far as the ability to rake in taxes goes, would be gambling.

The State of Texas already has several forms of Lottery; so many that I could not name them all. There are the large “jack pot” lotteries, Pick 3, Pick 4, Texas Two Step, and the twice a week Bonus Ball lottery. Then there are Scratch Off tickets, a whole different form of chance. I have to plead guilty to having played the lottery. I played the same numbers every week; 9,10,15,18,20 and the bonus ball number 23; our birthdays and our wedding anniversary respectively. It was fun and twice a week we could dream of all the great things to do with so much money; not that I ever really believe it would happen, just that it could happen. Now they want to make slot machines legal too, all because more forms of gambling would bring in more tax money.

In April I listened to the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Gordon B. Hinkley, as he explained the official position of the Church. He went on for about twenty minutes about gambling; but started out with a simple one liner, “We’re against it.” He convinced me that I was setting a poor example for my family and those around me. It boiled down to one issue, my membership in the Church and that following the instructions of the Prophet of the Church were intertwined in such a way as to be binding. I have not purchased a lottery ticket since then and will no longer take trips to Las Vegas, not that I have done it all that often, just to pull some handles. I’m not saying it wasn’t a lot of fun; for surely it was a great deal of fun, I simply cannot do it now that I am fully aware of the hidden morally corrupt nature of gambling.

I went back and read Gordon B. Hinkley’s talk along with a referenced talk given by by Elder Dallin H. Oaks, Of the Quorum of the Twelve. I found that my ignorance of a long standing Church stance on gambling was just that, ignorance. The Church has always been firmly against gambling; I had never been listening is all.

“The Church has been and now is unalterably opposed to gambling in any form whatever. It is opposed to any game of chance, occupation, or so-called business, which takes money from the person who may be possessed of it without giving value received in return. It is opposed to all practices the tendency of which is to … degrade or weaken the high moral standard which the members of the Church, and our community at large, have always maintained.”

I read more concerning the political aspects related to gambling. What I found leaves little room for misunderstanding the profound negative effect gambling has on society.

“Gambling is debased speculation, a lust for sudden wealth that is not connected with the process of making society more productive of goods and services. Government support of gambling gives a legitimizing imprimatur to the pursuit of wealth without work.”

“In the words of Governor Bob Graham of Florida, (talk was given in 1987), “What the lottery says about success is the wrong message. What it says is that you don’t have to work hard, you don’t have to try to improve yourself. All you have to do is just take your roll of the dice.”

“The philosophy of something for nothing or something for far less than it is worth is at the root of a multitude of crimes: theft, robbery, looting, embezzlement, fraud, and many other kinds of plunder. By nourishing and legitimating that philosophy, gambling is a threat to the prosperity and peace of any nation.”

“Publicly Sponsored Gambling Is Dangerous Because It Becomes Addictive to the Body Politic, Which Then Preys upon Its Citizens. Gambling is especially pernicious when it is administered by government or when government relies on it as a substantial source of public revenue. In times when a government’s appetite for taxes seems insatiable, government officials who depend on gambling to finance a share of the public budget have a strong temptation to promote gambling and to protect it from opposition.”

“The first thing that is obvious is that New York State itself has become a predator in a way that the Mafia could never hope to match. What was intended as a plan to control gambling has become a high-powered device to promote it. The people who can least afford to take chances with their money are not only not dissuaded from gambling but are actually being cajoled into it by the state. Millions of dollars are being spent by New York State on lavish advertising on television, on radio, in buses, and on billboards. At least the Mafia was never able publicly to glorify and extol gambling with taxpayer money. And the number of poor people who were hurt by gambling under the Mafia is minuscule compared to the number who now lose money on horses with the urgent blessings of New York State.”

“You can’t run a successful lottery by telling the whole truth. You need hard-sell promotion, often vague and misleading about the odds and the prizes. That enterprise of parting the sucker from his dollar is questionable enough in the free marketplace; it’s no business for a state or federal government whose purpose is to serve and protect the people.”

“The social effects of gambling have been noted throughout history. After a period in which lotteries were common in England, a Parliamentary Committee described their effects in 1808. They reported people who had lived in comfort and respectability being reduced to poverty and distress; domestic quarrels, assaults, and the ruin of family peace; fathers deserting their families, mothers neglecting their children, wives robbing their husbands of the earnings of months and years, and people pawning clothing, beds, and wedding rings in order to indulge in speculation. “In other cases,” the committee reported, “children had robbed their parents, servants their masters; suicides had been committed, and almost every crime that can be imagined had been occasioned, either directly or indirectly, through the baneful influence of lotteries.”

I have taken the liberty of listing several of quotes directly from Dallin Oaks talk and there were yet many more pieces of valuable information that shed light, wisdom and reasoning to why gambling should be avoided, both from the individual’s stand point as well as from the aspect of governmentally instituted lotteries. It would serve any and all who happen upon this to do their own reading and soul searching. Do your homework; there's a link in the title bar as well as one below.

http://www.lds.org/conference/talk/display/0,5232,49-1-520-21,00.html