State's hand is in dirty-dealing poker machines

Dennis Yusko's Nov. 4 front-page article on the video poker machines at Saratoga Gaming and Raceway revealed the dirty little secret about how the state Division of the Lottery deliberately misleads the public.

As Mr. Yusko's article clearly points out, most people who patronize those machines believe that how they play the electronic hand dealt them will actually affect their chances of winning. In fact, the result of any given hand is predetermined when dealt, and although the machines are intentionally designed to make it appear that the decision to hold or draw new cards could result in a better hand, that is not the case.

Yet the Lottery induces customers to play under this misimpression, deluding them into thinking that the apparently interactive machine will give the skillful or experienced poker player a better chance to win. This inexcusable deception by the state is simply an effort to attract more "suckers" to gamble away their hard-earned dollars.

Were such deceit engaged in by any private enterprise, it would be fraud. The state nevertheless continues to mislead the public with the Machiavellian rationale that, after all, the proceeds benefit education.

This is yet another distortion, as the dollars that go to fund education from those machines are not a supplement, but rather a substitute for money that would otherwise be raised in a more straightforward fashion by honest taxation.

The money garnered from these machines is, in effect, a hidden tax that falls disproportionately upon those poor suckers who can least afford it.

It is time for the Lottery to come clean and inform those who patronize the video poker machines that they are playing against a stacked deck. Or is it too much to ask that the state be an honest dealer?

CORNELIUS D. MURRAY

Albany -- Times Union

News Added: 12 November, 2007

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