Stop implementing Lottery culture among students

Thursday, February 08, 2007



To

Hon. Chief Minister,

Govt. of Kerala, India.



Cc: Hon. Minister of Education,

Hon. Minister of Sports,

Hon. Minister of Finance;

Kerala State, India.



_____________________________________________________________________________



Respected Sirs,



Re: Implementation of Lottery culture in Educational institutes in Kerala.



This petition refers to Kerala Finance ministrys move to implement Lottery culture in educational institutes for the fund raising of sports. We, the people of Kerala who elected you to rule our state, really afraid about our children whom we sent to schools in Kerala to be educated for the academic as well as moral growth. Because, our children are going to learn the beginning course of Lottery game as you have implemented lottery in educational institutes too. We do believe that Lottery is definitely an immorality like alcoholic drinks. You are kindly requested to go through the following passages to understand why Lottery culture is immoral.



1. Lottery is one of the most senseless and speculative "investments" on Earth. It promotes the spending of real money for a highly elusive product (the win).

2. It is deceitful in that the real product delivered reportedly 14 million times to one (14,000,000:1) is FALSE HOPE.

3. It encourages the diversion of capital from reasonable investment vehicles which yield reasonable returns to a senseless investment which reportedly has been mathematically calculated to yield a significant return only once out of every 14 million times.

4. From a local economic point of view, it has a highly negative multiplier effect.

5. It promotes a harmful practice: unwise investing.

6. It uses miseducation to promise education: People are encouraged to participate in this "investment" fraud, and are then told that the money gained from such an "investment" will be used to "educate" them.

7. Lottery siphons money from the community but provides neither a comparable good nor service in return. (An honest tax could better benefit the community and would be more sound in moral, economic and psychological character. A tax called a tax is an honest tax. A tax called a chance is a fraud).

8. It promotes psychological instability by encouraging individuals to commit real, hard-earned assets to mostly unreal, highly improbable trade activities. To grant a fair return to all would kill the lottery. It lives and thrives by consuming the hard-earned resources of losers.

9. Its very life depends on the losses of many. Its best customers must be losers.

10. It robs so many to pay so few.

11. If it is a tax it is an unfair tax because it succeeds only in collecting from the gullible.

12. Its negative impact is doubled: 1. It (by siphoning funds) weakens the regular economy; and 2. It creates a wholly defective side economy.

13. It's one of the worse budgeting lessons a child could ever be taught.

14. It exploits the weak and seeks to weaken the strong.

15. It destroys soundness.



(The above points are taken from http://home.bellsouth.net/p/s/community.dll?ep=16&ext=1&groupid=38176&ck)



Quoting communist ideologist V.I.Lenin: "I can explain you what is a lottery. I need to sell a cow worth fifty rubles. I make 100 tickets of one ruble each. After closing the tickets, I draw one person among the ticket holders. Here only two persons got benefit. Me and the one who got the cow for one ruble. The remaining 99 persons are cheated. Actually, the people are winners? No. Because, the amount they paid totally is the double of the exact cost for the cow. Now, understand that Lotteries are cheating people" (the above quote is from memory. Words may be changed, but not meaning).



'Get money without any work'. This is the real ideology behind lottery. Means, a part of laziness. Also, it becomes an addiction among people. More than 200 mental patients by Lottery-game are under treatment only in Mumbai Nimhans hospital. There are many families in Kerala where most of the family members go to work everyday. But, they struggle to manage their life expense. Because, individually they spend a major part of their wages for lottery and alcoholic drinks. In kerala, we can see crowd in front of lottery stalls. Most of them are poor labours. Like 'chethu thozhilali', 'thengu kayatam' etc. They take at least three tickets everyday. They are simply expecting huge money with a probability of 0.00001. But, they go behind lottery again and again. Is it not addiction? Is it not spoiling people? Once, Supreme Court also supported the ban on lottery cause of the above immoral issue. The starting of lottery was in America and the first ban on lottery also was in America. Hence, we strongly believe that Lottery is an immoral version like alcoholic drinks and prostitution.



If Government is implementing Lottery in schools only on the basis of fund raising for sports, we afraid that Government will support selling alcohol in schools for the same reason in future? Sir, also we would like to mention that if government has crores to conduct Kerala state school kalolsavaem (such Asia's biggest kalolsavam), why we cant find money for sports only? Government can collect some crores by collecting two or three rupees each from school students. And three of five rupees each from college students. Also, we can approach sponsors. And there are many other ways. But, without tying any of such ways, government is trying to get money through an easy immoral way by implementing a bad culture to students.



Respected Sirs,

Hope you understand we people's emotion and you are kindly requested to take necessary action to withdraw all type of lotteries from educational institutes and to drop the plan of releasing new lotteries.



Thanking you in anticipation.