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Massachusetts Lottery Ads Criticized

MASSACHUSETTS – As reported by the Boston Globe: "Eight years after banning most lottery advertising because critics said it targeted the poor, Massachusetts began touting its games anew this week with newspaper ads and 30-second radio spots to promote "season tickets" for holiday gifts.

"The $215,000 ad push, the precursor to a more ambitious campaign that will start Jan. 26, is meant to raise more revenue for the state, but is already drawing criticism from gambling opponents who say the effort offers an overly optimistic portrait of the games of chance.

"…The state prohibited virtually all forms of lottery advertising in the second half of the 1990s, largely because then-Senate President Thomas F. Birmingham and his supporters saw such sales-boosting tactics as victimizing poorer residents. But after Birmingham's departure at the end of last year, and as tax revenues dried up during the state's recent fiscal troubles, lawmakers saw lottery advertising as a sure bet for pumping more money not only into municipal coffers, but also into the state's.

"Treasurer Timothy P. Cahill, who oversees the Lottery and its $5 million ad budget, said the main goal is to pump more money into the state's beleaguered cities and towns, which saw cuts of roughly 20 percent in local aid funding last year as lawmakers sought to close a $3 billion budget gap without raising taxes.

"…Some staunch opponents of recent attempts to bring casino gambling to Massachusetts say they see less of a problem in the return to lottery advertising…"

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