Lottery, poverty link highlighted in slot debate

Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2003 | 9:08 a.m.

BALTIMORE -- Recent studies suggest the Maryland Lottery generates an outsized share of its revenue from the poor, from minorities and from people with limited education.

Gambling opponents and some researchers say these are also the people more likely to play slots, should Maryland legalize machines, raising questions of whether state-run slots would exploit the disadvantaged.

A recent analysis of lottery records and census data by the Maryland Department of Planning shows a correlation between Zip codes with high lottery sales and poor neighborhoods.

The study finds that districts that sell the most lottery tickets per person have more poverty, more minority residents and more high school dropouts than elsewhere. Many of those districts are in Prince George's County and Baltimore, but they are also in rural areas.

"We are basically oblivious to what is going on with the Maryland Lottery," Delegate Luiz R.S. Simmons, a foe of legalized gambling who requested the study, told The Washington Post. "Over the last 30 years, the lottery has become a sharp instrument to harvest a horrible amount of money from our poorest and most vulnerable communities.

"Public acceptance of casinos and slot houses depends on public tolerance of the lottery," he added. "If the lottery continues to enjoy public acceptance as a legitimate, even benign, means of raising revenues, then casinos and slot houses ... cannot be far behind."

Supporters of legalizing slots, though, cite the 30-year-old state lottery as a model of how state-sponsored gambling can rake in big money without alienating the public.