>The government should get out of the lottery-for-profit business
>Allow private businesses to offer lotteries and compete with each other
I'm sure banning government lotteries and replacing them with private ones would be great for society. I mean what could go wrong?
A lottery is just gambling. We already have frameworks for regulating private gambling. Vegas is fine. The world hasn't ended.
So tell me. What would go wrong if lotteries were privatized and regulated to a similar degree as Las Vegas?
Interestingly, the job of advertising state lotteries should walk a fine line between drawing would-be private gamblers to safer state circumstances and inducing people who wouldn't normally gamble to take it up. And it sounds like some of those ads have stepped over the line.
So the most salient part of this article deals with advertising lotteries.
The part about turning the lottery over to private businesses I don't find compelling. After all, the role of private business is to make profit and often does so by gravitating laws in their favor. I don't think businesses would compete to see who can make the most benevolent advertising.