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I'm curious to see what south dakotans think of their video lottery. To my knowledge, there are only two states that offer full fleged video poker and slot machine games as part of the state lottery; Oregon and SD. Around here, problem gambling is a why of life for many oregonians. A portion of VLT profits even go to fund GA services! As the state grows, more and more machines are being added in new lounges, bars ect. Throw a stone in Oregon, and you'll hit a VLT waiting to take your money. There are positives, like increased tax revenue, but the negatives always seem to outweight. The questions are; Do you support the SD video lottery? Has it impacted you in a positive or negative way? Do you see the benefit in keeping VLT's active within the state? If so (or if not), why?
Most South Dakotans that I talk to do not approve of the video lottery. It ruins families financially and morally and the state is not any better for it. I do not see any improvements made to teachers' salaries, school funding, or child healthcare. Every year, it seems, there is a vote to get rid of it. People, for some reason, choose to keep it because they are scared that taxes will increase. Do you know how much they would go up?
Half a cent. I guess people don't want to dip into their retirement fund for that 1/2 penny!
My parents' friend lost her house, cars, and family because she became addicted to video lottery. She even went to Deadwood every weekend to play. I also know of a woman in Rapid City who owned a very old, expensive house in the West Boulevard District of Rapid City and was married to a prestigious attorney in Rapid City. She lost everything in gambling and now lives in a motel on the north side of town. She has been dubbed "Poker Alice" by many locals.
IMO video lottery causes more problems than solutions for South Dakota. We spend over $35,000 per year to help gambling addicts!
I don't live in SD but once did - video lottery in sioux falls alone makes tens of millions of dollars per year if I remember right from the last statistic I heard, and yes, there are vid lot machines everywhere. As like most other lotteries, it is definitely, in general, a "poor man's tax", and poor persons in SD really can't afford to be losing what precious little money they have. Be grateful that in Oregon there is "GA" for some folks - SD lacks many social services and is very low on social welfare in the state - and I believe that SD is host to 5 of the nation's ten poorest counties (most of which are reservations I believe).
Video lottery should be done away with, if you combine the tax on food and clothes with this addictive gaming strategy, the poor people of south dakota (and there are a lot) are really getting taxed every which way.
Yea, I've heard some of the horror stories, too, especially when video lottery was first legalized here. I remember an old neighbor who lost four quarters of land~just gambled it away. It is a menace to many families.
On the flip side~we get a 30% cut in our real estate taxes because we have video lottery.
Most South Dakotans that I talk to do not approve of the video lottery. It ruins families financially and morally and the state is not any better for it. I do not see any improvements made to teachers' salaries, school funding, or child healthcare. Every year, it seems, there is a vote to get rid of it. People, for some reason, choose to keep it because they are scared that taxes will increase. Do you know how much they would go up?
Half a cent. I guess people don't want to dip into their retirement fund for that 1/2 penny!
My parents' friend lost her house, cars, and family because she became addicted to video lottery. She even went to Deadwood every weekend to play. I also know of a woman in Rapid City who owned a very old, expensive house in the West Boulevard District of Rapid City and was married to a prestigious attorney in Rapid City. She lost everything in gambling and now lives in a motel on the north side of town. She has been dubbed "Poker Alice" by many locals.
IMO video lottery causes more problems than solutions for South Dakota. We spend over $35,000 per year to help gambling addicts!
That was a very interesting read. I know here oregon, our video lottery "supposedly" pays for schools, public services, low income health care, ect. In addition, we have no state sales tax. I had always assumed that taxes would skyrocket if we ever lost our lottery, but now I'm not so sure. Half-a-cent!? That's unbelieveable!!
I won't lie, I enjoy video poker just as much as the next guy, and I'd probably miss being able to play every now and then. BUT; I've seen the people who can't afford to play, the people who lose big on a daily basis. I once saw a man lose 180 dollars in 20 minutes. He was pacing and sweating, the guy looked like hell. Anyway, after a couple of minutes, he finally left. I swear to God, the man came back within the hour! It was heartbreaking. He lost more money in a day then I've lost in the 3 years I've been legal to play!! The longest I've ever spent on a VLT is two hours, playing and losing about 20 dollars, but I'm sure there are people who spend hours on end losing 10 times that amount everyday. It's painful just to think about it.
...i'm ranting now, sorry.
Anyway, it's good to know that Oregon isn't alone in it's bitter sweet relationship with video lottery.
In Wyoming, we have nothing. No gambling, no lottery, no nothing. I don't miss it. When I go to Montana, I always get a lottery ticket. Once or maybe twice a month. Wow, 2 bucks. The great spender in me. I actually had a ticket that won a while back. Had to drive 80 miles to redeme my $7. Just bought another ticket and lost it also. hahaha
I was stationed in San Diego for many years. Had to drive through Vegas to come home. Would roll down the window and throw a $20 out and keep on driving. Figured it was cheaper that way.
There are divergent views on gambling in general and I accept that. It doesn't interest me, personally, but I recognize that by and large gambling is a personal choice and I'm all for personal choices.
"Video lottery," however, is another story. It is particularly insidious, allowing a player to quietly and privately gamble away their entire paycheck without any intercourse with a dealer, another player, or anyone at all. Over the last decade or so there have been so many financial failures, bankruptcies, and embezzlement prosecutions running back to an addiction to video gambling that I've lost count. And that's just in a handful of rural SD counties.
Maybe we'll figure out again why a little over 100 years ago almost all gambling was outlawed in every state in the USA except Nevada. The social cost may finally wake us up again...
In SD, most of the video lottery proceeds are supposed to go to schools. It's interesting to state however that teacher salaries in SD are among the lowest in the country, if not THE lowest on average. Lots of help from lottery, huh?
There has been a couple times in the past decade where voters were given the chance to repeal video lottery, they obviously failed.
Yea~teacher's salaries here are by far not the greatest. The only thing I can add to that is NONE of the wages here are too impressive. We're just a low wage state and always have been.
But I would like to stress the fact that we do get a 30% tax cut on owner occupied homes because of the lottery. That could be the driving force for repealing it being voted down. Still other voters may just like having the freedom to decide whether they want to play lottery or not.
There are divergent views on gambling in general and I accept that. It doesn't interest me, personally, but I recognize that by and large gambling is a personal choice and I'm all for personal choices.
"Video lottery," however, is another story. It is particularly insidious, allowing a player to quietly and privately gamble away their entire paycheck without any intercourse with a dealer, another player, or anyone at all. Over the last decade or so there have been so many financial failures, bankruptcies, and embezzlement prosecutions running back to an addiction to video gambling that I've lost count. And that's just in a handful of rural SD counties.
Maybe we'll figure out again why a little over 100 years ago almost all gambling was outlawed in every state in the USA except Nevada. The social cost may finally wake us up again...
I don't have any interest in gambling but understand that many people do. Years ago, if a state outlawed gambling law-abiding people were out of luck, Sure, many people continued to gamble in illegal establishments and with bookies but the majority of people complied with the law. The Web has changed all that. The sheer ease and convenience of gambling on the Internet make it an attractive alternative to SD's video lottery anyway. If you outlaw the video lottery South Dakotans will still gamble but the money will instead move out of state with SD taxpayers making up the shortfall. Unfortunately this is one of the instances where the saying "You can't put the genie back in the bottle" is true.
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I guess people don't want to dip into their retirement fund for that 1/2 penny!
SD Video Lottery: Lesser of Two Evils
