It Is Right for Texas Law to Restrict the Lottery Commission from Introducing New Forms of Gambling - Essay Example

Bookmaking, taking bets on sports events and/or horse races; numbers, taking bets on what number will be selected or occur in some random way; and commercial (illegal) card or casino games.

Thesis: It is right for Texas law to restrict the lottery commission from introducing new forms of gambling. Texas Lottery runs by the Texas government thus it is often criticized as typical gambling which hurts society. In 1991, the legislation to create a state lottery was introduced and the Texas population approved the Lottery. Since that time, the Texas Lottery communion has introduced a lot of new forms of gambling including Mega Millions, Lotto Texas, and Daily 4 (The Texas Lottery 2008).

The goals of the Texas laws are to restrict gambling in the state and protect citizens from "exploitation" by the Lottery commission. Also, Texas laws regulate the gambling industry and stipulate strict norms and principles for the Lottery. The advisability of legalizing the Lottery in order to generate revenue for the state must be assessed in terms of the equity of gambling as a tax source, i.e. the regressivity of taxes, and the efficiency of raising revenue through gambling taxes, i.e. the cost-effectiveness of the Lottery legalization (Dee 2004).

Thus, current laws do not accomplish their goals and permit the emergence of new forms of Lottery and gambling. Daily 4. is an example of this process. The right thing is that the Texas laws legalize the Lottery and reduce illegal gambling in Texas (Sandberg 2008). Related to the second criterion, the revenue potential of legalizing gambling is determined by (A) the total amount wagered on presently legal forms of gambling; (B) the total amount wagered on presently illegal forms of gambling; (C) which forms of gambling are legalized; (D) the degree of substitutability among the various forms of gambling and between legal and illegal forms of gambling; and (E) the price elasticity of the demand for gambling, i.e. the sensitivity of the potential gambler to total gambling take-out rates, including government-imposed tax rates.

We consider in turn the equity and efficiency arguments of gambling legalization (Texas Gambling Laws 2008). The wrong thing is that the Texas Laws do not protect citizens from gambling and the Lottery as a form of it, and permits new forms of games to be introduced, There is disagreement as to the regressive nature of gambling taxes as a source of revenue. The argument for regressivity is supported by the observed pattern of gambling behavior for persons of different income groups (Kish 1998).

Proponents of legalization cite it as a way for the state to raise additional revenue for new or expanded programs while not provoking any latent antitax sentiments in its citizenry. Such legalization is merely rendering to the state monies that would otherwise be lost either to states where the activity is legal or to illegal operations. To improve the situation, the Texas authorities should prohibit new forms of Lottery and gambling games.