HARRISBURG PATRIOT-NEWS Editorial: … It would be understandable to push privatization of the lottery if Pennsylvania had been doing a poor job managing it. There are certainly things government does not do well. This newspaper has been critical of the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board.
But by just about any measure, our state’s lottery is pretty good.
The games are fun and easy to obtain. Some of the advertisements such as “Gus the groundhog” became iconic — people have even written letters to the editor asking for his return.
Most importantly, the Pennsylvania lottery is making a lot of money that’s going directly to support programs for seniors. Last year, the lottery made a record $1 billion profit. The year before that also was a banner performance in sales and revenues. While there have been years when the lottery didn’t hit its targets, some of those were during recession periods when nothing was doing well… (more)
EDITOR: It seems whenever politicians and special interests get the smell of a possible way to extract money from the government, they are off and running. Witness the Lancaster Convention Center and the Harrisburg Incinerator ploys. There seems to be a certain stench rising from this sudden effort to privatize the lottery system, with both parties lining up to share in the swag.
