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
    POEM: O.A.S., Roque Dalton, circa 1970
    28 Oct 2026
    “The President of the United States is more/ the President of my country/ than the President of my country.”
  • ​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
    Rubio, France’s Student Uprising, and the Politics of Ethnic Cleansing in Europe
    28 Oct 2026
    Marco Rubio's speeches invoking a shared Western civilization are part of the ideological consolidation of fascism, mobilizing white racial solidarity to defend a declining capitalist order.
  • Nayib Bukele's face superimposed over human skulls.
    Jemima Pierre, BAR Editor and Contributor
    Killing Haiti: Bukele and Prince join the US and the UN on Mission to Murder
    28 Oct 2026
    Nayib Bukele, El Salvador’s president, joins Erik Prince, the US, and the UN to kill more Haitians.
  • Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    Navi Pillay’s Nobel Rewards an Epic Lie
    28 Oct 2026
    Navi Pillay’s participation in the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) should have disqualified her for consideration for the Nobel or any other peace prize. 
  • Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    U.S. Liberal Media Literacy Guide: Wealthy People
    28 Oct 2026
    The media uses vague language to protect billionaires from judgment and pressures people to pursue change through polite, respectable channels. The result is that readers become spectators of…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us