For two and a half decades, Mississippi has been mulling adopting a lottery similar to neighboring states Louisiana, Arkansas and Tennessee. Proponents of the lottery have said that it could add $100-150 million to the state’s revenue stream, thereby creating more funding for education and infrastructure.
However, opponents such as politicians and members of the media have argued that the lottery would take advantage of the poorest and least educated residents of the state, and would not raise anywhere close to as much money as is needed to seriously 
address the deteriorating transportation infrastructure.
They have argued that while Louisiana has had a lottery for decades, their infrastructure and state coffers are still a mess.
Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act that had kept states from drafting their own sports betting regulations. Because Mississippi lawmakers in 2017 passed a law legalizing sports betting within the state’s existing casinos if federal laws allowed it, we could be a few months away from statewide sports betting in casinos.
We will see if the same opponents of the lottery will come out in opposition to sports betting, but if they do so, it would be highly hypocritical. The truth is that Mississippi has had casinos for more than 30 years and our poorest and lowest educated residents also frequent these establishments and spend much more money there than they would for a few lotto tickets.
It can be assumed that the same people would bet on sporting events if the state allows it in the near future.
Many opponents of the lottery argue that the state should raise the gas tax in order to boost funding for infrastructure improvements. If you’ve been to any our county’s gas stations lately, and it’s likely that you have, this might not seem like a good idea, and poor people have to buy gas too.
I believe it was high time that the U.S. wrestled away the monopoly of the legal sports betting from Las Vegas, just as it did for casinos several decades ago. I also think that something has to be done about funding to improve public education and our infrastructure, but we have to remember that many of those solutions will inadvertently affect our poorest residents. I don’t think we can pick and choose which methods we should use to improve our state, and finding more funding for education and roads using any avenues we can will lift more people out of poverty in the long run.
Contact Demetrius at dthompson@newtoncountyappeal.com.
