AZ Lottery Department Chutzpah

AZ Lottery Department Chutzpah
What if I said that I want to steal as much as I can while maintaining my integrity? Sounds stupid doesn’t it? Well, our Arizona State Lottery Commission has a similar mission, and, I would contend, infinite chutzpah. I recently attended a Governor’s Regulatory Review Commission-GRRC meeting where the Lottery Commission rules were discussed. The Lottery representative began her presentation by stating that their mission was to “maximize revenue for the department while maintaining the dignity of the state.” I testified that this was an impossible mission because it is unseemly and tawdry for any government entity to be in the gaming business, and it is certainly beneath the dignity of the state. This activity should be confined to the private sector with regulation and taxation as appropriate.
A more honest mission statement for the lottery would be “to fleece Arizona residents who are mostly poor and insufficiently educated to realize what awful returns the Arizona Lottery produces.”