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


  • Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    EDITORIAL: Iran, Third World People and U.S. Foreign Policy, Palestine Perspectives, 1979
    04 Mar 2026
    “The events in Iran are a symptom—of a 20th century disease called imperialism.”
  • Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    US and Israel Aid Sudan by Attacking Iran
    04 Mar 2026
    The US and Israel’s wholly unprovoked attack on the sovereign nation of Iran has given Sudan a hand in their own battle for sovereignty.
  • Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
    State of The Epstein Class’s Union
    04 Mar 2026
    "State of The Epstein Class’s Union" is the latest from BAR's Poet-in-Residence.
  • Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright
    From Proclamation to Provocation: How Marco Rubio Signaled a New Era of Western Colonial Aggression
    04 Mar 2026
    Marco Rubio's Munich speech was a declaration of war wrapped in nostalgia for the old white "supremacist" world order.
  • Black Alliance For Peace
    The Black Alliance for Peace Condemns the U.S.-Israeli War on Iran
    04 Mar 2026
    The U.S. and Israel are rogue states whose existence threatens international peace and security.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us