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Critics Blast North Dakota Lottery Plan18 January 2001BISMARCK, North Dakota -- Jan. 18, 2001 --As reported by the Grand Forks Herald: "North Dakota's Legislature began a fresh debate Wednesday over whether to allow a state lottery, with one gambling foe comparing the lottery to a hunting rifle aimed at the poor. "...The proposed constitutional amendment would end North Dakota's longstanding ban on lotteries. The House Judiciary Committee held its first hearing on the measure Wednesday, with plans to make a recommendation later. "...Supporters of the game countered that North Dakotans already travel outside the state to spend millions on lottery tickets, and that making it legal would allow state government programs to benefit. "...North Dakota voters twice rejected lottery measures in the 1980s. More recently, in June 1996, an initiative to legalize a lottery and allow video gambling machines in bars, restaurants and bingo halls was soundly beaten. Sixty-nine percent of the voters said no. "...Former Gov. Arthur Link, chairman of the North Dakota Council on Gambling Problems, said lottery advocates should first examine North Dakota's sales tax losses to catalog and Internet businesses outside the state as a way to gain more revenue. "`It is not the function of government to encourage its citizens to buy lottery tickets, where they lose more than they gain, in order to provide state revenue,'Link said. `There is nothing fair about that method of revenue collection.'" |