More money for lottery ads a waste

Do you play the lottery? Would you play more if you saw or heard more advertisements encouraging you to play? That is the hope of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, who is proposing spending significantly more to promote the games of chance. Walker wants to increase state spending on Wisconsin Lottery advertising, to the tune of an an additional $3 million. His budget calls for total lottery advertising spending of $10.5 million. Wisely, the extra ad money would come from lottery sales, not from taxpayers. But still this isn’t a good idea. There is little evidence that increasing spending on lottery ads translates to more ticket sales. And while the lottery generates property tax relief for Wisconsin homeowners, that money tends to be transferred from the low income who are more likely to play the lottery to middle and upper income property owners. And the last time Wisconsin increased its spending to promote the lottery, lottery sales actually declined the following year. It the Governor wants to provide additional property tax relief, he would be better served to write us each a check, rather than encouraging people to buy more lottery tickets.