For Immediate Release Wednesday, November 11, 2015
In the face of New Yorkattorney general Eric Schneiderman’sissuing ofcease-and-desist orders tofantasy sports operators DraftKings and FanDuel, theLibertarian Party calls for the state of New York and every other state-run gambling operation to immediately shut down their immoral and hypocritical operations.
One only needs to stand at a check-out counter where working poor dump the bulk of their disposable income into reels of state lottery tickets every day to witness the devastation that state lotteries wreak on the vulnerable.
Yet politicians have the audacity to call private gambling a ‘social ill.’
Not only is this egregiously hypocritical, it covers up the state’s own racket.
Greedy politicians use state lotteries to gouge gullible players, paying out only a fraction of what private operators pay out.
New Yorkpayouts are no more than 40-75% of ticket sales. That is to say, it pockets a whopping 25-60% of revenue.
In contrast, online gambling websites pay out 96-98% on average. Typical Las Vegas casinos payout over 99% on slot machines and poker games. Plus they throw in entertainment and free drinks.
In other words, the New York government pockets 25 to 60 times as much as casino operators do. Business is great when you can outlaw competition.
State governments not only play by very different rules than they impose on others; they break their own rules.
The Illinois state lottery held back paying winners as promised this year due to a budget impasse. They’re issuing IOUs instead. Yet no one is coming by with a crow bar to crack their knees for stiffing their customers.
State government lotteries are the real social ill. They run taxpayer-funded ads to lure their customers into buying addictive lottery tickets. They shut down their competitors under the threat of fines and imprisonment, forming state-sanctioned monopolies. Then they gouge their customers with pathetic, piddling payouts.
“Schniederman isn’t going after Draft Kings and FanDuel to protect NewYorkers, he’s going after them to crush competition for the New Yorklottery,” said Nicholas Sarwark, Chair of the Libertarian National Committee. ‘It’s supposed to be the job of attorneys general to break up the rackets that prey on poor people, not protect them.”
Unlike state lotteries, private gambling operators are fair and civil to their customers. They do not use force to suppress their competitors. Instead, they respond to competition by giving their customers a better deal.
“We call on New York and other state governments to cease-and-desistthese bullying tactics,” said Sarwark, “and for the repeal of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 (UIGEA) that government uses to stop Americans from making an honest wager.”
