Curbing Our Lottery Fever

Hurrah for Peirce’s column advocating powerful and yet most reasonable curbs on state lotteries!

Peirce points out eloquently the true nature of the lottery as a regressive tax. The New Jersey study showing that more than one-third of those below the poverty line spend one-fifth of their income on lotteries was an appalling revelation as to the depth and breadth of the problem in that state. There is no reason to think that the situation in California is any different.

For governments, which are supposed to exist to serve the people, to conduct lotteries is at best unseemly. For them to do so using the kind of hype that is characteristic of that which we see in California, to entice their citizens to participate, is shameful.

The executive branch of our state government should act to curb the excesses and enact the controls that Peirce discusses. If it does not do so, our Legislature should mandate such action.

RICHARD A. BLACKER

Santa Monica