‘Play responsibly’? Please. Lottery banks on irresponsible ‘play’

Big news from the S.C. “education” lottery: It was successful in taking $435 million out of the state’s economy in the past year. Whether it goes to administrative salaries or education, it came, disproportionately, from the poorest among us, who struggle every day to provide for their families while they dream of making the big hit and finally being able to provide for those families in the same manner as the executive director of the S.C. lottery.

That high-paid executive is much like the distributors of alcoholic beverages, who encourage drinkers to drink “responsibly” and play “responsibly” when in fact they are hoping for irresponsible drinking and irresponsible playing. Otherwise, lottery officials would not be able to gloat over taking the $435 million out of our economy.

Lotteries have utilized the work of “experts” in human behavior to devise a step-by-step behavior modification program that incorporates all the techniques to manipulate people into playing irresponsibly. This sort of thing is what has given behavior modification a negative connotation and forced responsible professionals into playing the old name game by calling their work “behavior support” or “positive behavior change.” This comes from a retired, responsible professional.

The State publishes a cross section of the letters we receive from South Carolinians in order to provide a forum for our community and also to allow our community to get a good look at itself, for good or bad. The letters represent the views of the letter writers, not necessarily of The State.