same answer as always......FREE MARKET. If people want to buy lotto tickets they should be able too, if they want to smoke pot or bet sports they should be able too. If i earn my money fairly and i want to gamble it up in the lotto thats up to me.
The issue of taxes is a whole new ball game, taxing wages/earnings is the same as taxing someones time. Taxing someones time is the same as taxing there life thus we are all slaves of the gov because we dont get to keep the fruits of our labor and even our most basic human rights, our right to our own production and our labor, is set and regulated by the united states gov. I dont know about you guys but i paid 40% of my income to taxes last year and that doesnt include my property tax, sales tax, tabs on all the family cars ext.
The other key issue here is government run monopolies. If there was a free market in lotteries in the long run consumers would accept only the best odds and highest payouts. However, regulation prevents a free market and creates another government monopoly just like the post office, education, nasa and soon to be health care and banking.
Long story short, more free market and less government and/or talk of "banning" stuff.
FREEDOM
-Arty