“Everything old is new again.” – Proverb

It would not be a proper legislative session in the Heart of Dixie without talk of a lottery or gambling or electronic bingo or some combination thereof. This year appears to be no exception.

AL.com reporter Mike Cason reported State Rep. Andy Whitt, R-Harvest, said he expects a comprehensive bill dealing with a lottery, casinos, sports betting, and a state regulatory commission to be introduced this session.

For Alabama to create a state lottery or legalize casinos and sports betting, the legislature will have to pass a bill to establish the rules of operation for any or all of these entities and determine how revenues will be spent. Since the Alabama Constitution prohibits a lottery and most commercial gambling, it will be up state voters to approve or deny a constitutional amendment for whatever is passed by the legislature.

My eyes began to cross trying to figure out all the possibilities when it comes to commercial gambling, so let us simplify and stick with the lottery issue for this piece because it seems to be a popular proposal among many people in our area and in the state.

The last time Alabama voters were able to vote on a lottery was 1999 when the authorization amendment failed by a healthy, but far from overwhelming, margin of 54 percent to 46 percent. Currently, only Utah, Nevada, Hawaii, and Alaska join Alabama as states without a lottery.

Rep. Whitt references a phenomenon familiar to us in Randolph County as part of his justification for a lottery in Alabama. Whitt lives in Madison County and says he sometimes sees lines of cars crossing the Tennessee state line to buy tickets in the Tennessee Lottery. All of us probably know more than one person who travels over to Georgia to do the same.

Opponents of the lottery point out lotteries hurt the most financially vulnerable among us. Numerous studies back up that viewpoint, but even without those studies, it makes sense that if you do not have the skills, drive or resources to become wealthy it is actually somewhat rational to play the lottery as it may be the most likely way for you to accumulate wealth.

Of course, the problem is the odds of you winning any kind of substantial, life-changing jackpot are still laughably small.

But let me share a reason you may not think about for why a lottery may not be in our best interest. The entire reason we have government is we, as a society, agree to give up some of our freedoms in exchange to be protected by government. While the proper size and role of a government is debated among those involved in politics, everyone other than anarchists agrees the main role of government is to protect us.

Sometimes this protection is defense from attacks by other countries. Sometimes the protection is from people who wish to harm or take advantage of us. Sometimes this protection is from ourselves, such as laws against dangerous drugs like fentanyl and methamphetamine.

Governments with lotteries not only provide opportunities for making financial decisions that will almost certainly harm us, they encourage those decisions. Since we live in a Georgia media market, you are likely familiar with lottery commercials saying, “You can’t win if you don’t play.”

While technically true, those commercials leave out the idea of you also can’t lose if you don’t play, and you are so, so much more likely to lose.

This is different from the government being a “nanny state” and trying to overregulate the private sector to prevent businesses from selling us as a pack of cigarettes or a pint of bourbon. The private sector’s job is to make money. Exploiting people for more revenue should not be the government’s goal, and this violates the protection we should expect from government.

While lottery supporters are effective in dressing up the lottery as being a benefit to society, usually by earmarking revenues to fund public education, it comes at a cost of hindering people from achieving financial stability and helping them climb out of poverty. Alabamians pride ourselves on being self-reliant, but the state promoting opportunities for poor people to waste their money seems like a good way to keep people on government assistance.

What about all that money leaving the state? Well, you have me there. Money is leaving the state because other states are manipulating Alabamians into thinking they could win the lottery. The only response I have to that is to quote your mama. If everyone else is jumping off a bridge, should you do it, too?