Remember back in March when I used the Red Sox scratchoff lottery game to unleash a big anti-lottery screed? At the time I said I’d provide updates as warranted. That was kind of snarky, actually, but today we have a good reason to update anyway: the Massachusetts lottery has now brought in $1 billion in revenue as a result of Sox, Patriots, Celtics and Bruins-themed lottery games.
A little over 10% of that has gone towards local aid to Massachusetts municipalities. A large chunk -- they won’t say how much -- has gone to the teams as licensing fees. As is made clear in the article, the purpose of the announcement, while ostensibly to say how much money the lottery has brought in, was really about allowing the lottery commissioner/gubernatorial candidate to get some face time with the big team owners.
I still think the whole thing stinks for all the reasons I said back in March.
