Comments on: Sparks Lambasts Gov. Bob Riley's Speech http://blog.locustfork.net/2010/01/sparks-lambasts-gov-bob-rileys-speech/ A Wide Open Weblog for Big News, the Big Picture Thu, 24 May 2012 14:15:38 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: Glynn Wilson http://blog.locustfork.net/2010/01/sparks-lambasts-gov-bob-rileys-speech/comment-page-1/#comment-3803 Glynn Wilson Fri, 15 Jan 2010 04:51:43 +0000 http://blog.locustfork.net/?p=5877#comment-3803 Need we remind readers again that Don Siegelman was elected governor in 1998 on a single issue campaign: An education lottery. Maybe it will work this time. Maybe the Christians will be beaten back simply by the economic need in these trying times... Need we remind readers again that Don Siegelman was elected governor in 1998 on a single issue campaign: An education lottery. Maybe it will work this time. Maybe the Christians will be beaten back simply by the economic need in these trying times…

]]> By: Yana Davis http://blog.locustfork.net/2010/01/sparks-lambasts-gov-bob-rileys-speech/comment-page-1/#comment-3802 Yana Davis Thu, 14 Jan 2010 19:59:18 +0000 http://blog.locustfork.net/?p=5877#comment-3802 Should Sparks get elected, I wish him well with the lottery plan. State lotteries have had a mixed record -- some work well raising revenue for their intended purposes, almost always education, some have become cesspools of corruption. If there is going to be a lottery, there might as well be legalized casino gambling as well. People typically don't travel and stay overnight to play a state lottery, but they will to gamble at a casino. A lottery plus casino gambling, maybe limited to cruise boats or the coast, would raise much more money than a lottery alone. Then there's the "Alabama factor" to consider. Outside Chicago and Louisiana, we seem to have the most corruptible politicians in the country. Any state lottery-gambling scheme needs to be locked tight, somehow, against the very politicians who will enact the plan. All of that adds up to a tall order -- count on vociferous opposition from fundamentalists and the Mississippi gaming industry to boot -- if Ron Sparks is elected. Should Sparks get elected, I wish him well with the lottery plan. State lotteries have had a mixed record — some work well raising revenue for their intended purposes, almost always education, some have become cesspools of corruption.

If there is going to be a lottery, there might as well be legalized casino gambling as well. People typically don’t travel and stay overnight to play a state lottery, but they will to gamble at a casino. A lottery plus casino gambling, maybe limited to cruise boats or the coast, would raise much more money than a lottery alone.

Then there’s the “Alabama factor” to consider. Outside Chicago and Louisiana, we seem to have the most corruptible politicians in the country. Any state lottery-gambling scheme needs to be locked tight, somehow, against the very politicians who will enact the plan.

All of that adds up to a tall order — count on vociferous opposition from fundamentalists and the Mississippi gaming industry to boot — if Ron Sparks is elected.

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