by William Nadeau

Created on: July 01, 2009   Last Updated: July 03, 2009

No the Illinois state lottery should not be leased to any private company. In doing so the state will be allowing some very greedy people to take over the management of a potentially harmful form of addiction.

That is a form of addiction that many of the Native American tribes hooked into over twenty years ago. In the state of New Mexico the tribes would open a gambling casino on their reservation. That way the gambling process would be completely free of any state control. It was a real rebellious form of action to do that because most of the states in the south west were against gambling.

The residents in them had become that way through the Wild West poker table gunfights they had grown up knowing about. The Union County war illustrates how deeply powerful gambling house saloon owners had become. Just about every resident in Texas or New Mexico could tell you about the risk there had been when the folk you played poker with were armed with a Colt pistol.

Once all the profits made by the Native Americans became clear a couple states opened a gambling lottery on their own. Texas and Arizona figured out they could start raising taxes from out of state residents when folk like truck drivers and tourists started purchasing a lottery ticket as they passed through which ever state offered them.

That form of raising money for the state government wasn't widely accepted right away. It took several years before more than one state government picked up on it. It probably was because of all the Native American run gambling casinos that had more influence on the decision made in New Mexico to open their own gambling lottery than any from Texas or Arizona. That state had so many casinos in so many different reservations the state congressmen could actually see how addictive gambling was to their state tax payers.

Because New Mexico has a relatively small population that is highly made up of Native Americans who are not required to pay every state tax it makes a good example about how a state run lottery can be used as a way to raise some additional taxes. Some that are so well hidden no one complains about the higher prices of what ever is usually needed by them just to get by.

Before this decision is made every voter in Illinois must be made aware of the fact that state run gambling casinos are a hidden way of taxing the state residents. Once that awareness is obtained the fact that the state sales tax probably will increase after the state of Illinois releases that secret form of taxation.

Learn more about this author, William Nadeau.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.