Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire

Gambling and Neoliberal Rot - How Our Most Regressive Tax Flies Under the Radar: Citations Needed Episode 63
Adam Johnson, Nima Shirazi
06 Mar 2019
🖨️ Print Article

Local and state governments spend $1 billion annually to market the lottery, and in return Americans spend $70 billion each year on lottery tickets alone, 6 times what they spend going to movies. Almost all of it comes from people with low incomes, and the lower their incomes are, the more people play the lottery. When unemployment goes up, so do lottery sales. Lotteries marketed to the poor have taken the place of tax revenue extracted in more egalitarian ways.

Hosts Nina Shirazi and Adam Johnson talk to John Balzarini, Assistant Professor of Sociology at Delaware State University and Les Bernal National Director of Stop Predatory Gambling.

gambling
tax policy

More Stories


  • Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    US Seeks to Turn Eritrea Into “a Bulwark Against Iranian Influence”
    29 Apr 2026
    As the militarization of the Red Sea escalates, the US tries to enlist Eritrea in exchange for sanctions relief.
  • Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright
    Documents of Disaster and Conferences of Calamity: Rhetorical Questions, Questions of Rhetoric and the Transition  from Fossil Fuels
    29 Apr 2026
    The First Conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels produced a People's Declaration. There have been many such statements over the years, yet the climate crisis continues unabated.
  • Mark P. Fancher
    Political Snobbery Delays Black Liberation
    29 Apr 2026
    The conditions are ripe for growing Black political consciousness, but revolutionary movements must broaden their reach to all sectors and classes of the people.
  • Black Alliance For Peace
    Move the Games: No World Cup for Genocide, Ecocide, or State Thuggery
    29 Apr 2026
    A celebration of the most popular sport in the world can't be held in a country that commits genocide, ecocide, and daily state violence. The World Cup must not be held in the U.S.
  • Joshua Reaves Charmelus
    Exporting Apartheid: Israel’s Role in Haiti’s Water Crisis
    29 Apr 2026
    Behind the Dominican Republic’s assault on Haitian water sovereignty stands an Israeli Occupation apparatus – arming border forces, training police, and designing a thirty-year plan to control their…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us