EKIP– Expert Club for Economics and Politics A Different Opinion
In recent months, lottery games and their fans have been under serious political attack by Deputy Prime Minister Valeri Simeonov and the extra-parliamentary opposition in the person of the Democratic Bulgaria union. A bill has already been submitted to the National Assembly, which includes two main proposals - to limit (especially television) lottery advertising and to allow only licensed outlets to sell tickets. An aggressive campaign has been launched in the media and social networks, explaining how “terrible” a form of entertainment games of chance are.
Lottery and quick loans – the same clash
The situation in terms of goals and messages strongly resembles similar conversations that took place not so long ago about the so-called payday loans. Again, we have on the one hand empowered politicians like Simeonov, who, with the motive "I don't like it", want to interfere first in the successful and absolutely market Bulgarian business (of which they are otherwise the biggest defenders) and second in the personal choice of millions of Bulgarians. On the other hand, we have the regular Sofia intellectuals, who, as usual, know much better than the simple plebeians how the same simple plebeians should live their lives, earn money, spend it, and so on.
The arguments in the two aggressive restrictive campaigns are extremely similar. They talk about "addiction" and the subsequent financial problems. In reality, with both products, we have the vast majority who use them responsibly and without consequences for family budgets. In both cases, problem users are extremely few - in hard gambling, addiction levels, according to how they are measured, are present in less than 3% of players. And here we are talking about casinos and so-called machines, not the harmless (and loss-limiting) lottery, which is actually the goal of the new legislation. Since when do we actually consider the Toto to be dangerous?
Without going into detail, as with other forms of addiction, gambling should be addressed with measures focused on the addicts themselves and their problems, not with broad bans. The ban on alcohol advertising has not reduced the problem of alcoholism, the ban on drug possession has not eliminated those dying from overdoses, quite the opposite. There are enough good examples of how industry and regulators work in a significantly better way to address problem groups throughout Europe - there was a recent specific example with slot machines in the UK. In fact, the Gambling Commission collects considerable amounts of money precisely for this activity, let's check what happens with them?
Still, why this attack?
Valeri Simeonov has long shown that he has an affinity for legislative initiatives out of personal preferences and to the detriment of certain domestic industries. Last summer, he decided to reduce the sound of entertainment venues on the Black Sea coast, as well as this time, without any analysis - legislative, regulatory or economic. A masterful PR performance, which included the raid and closure of a disco on the sea. A favorite method of the recently arrested mayor of Mladost - Desislava Ivancheva - who was attacking construction sites in the neighborhood. There is no rule of law in which mayors and deputy prime ministers must participate in night inspections.
As for the small urban parties in the person of "Democratic Bulgaria" and the circles around them, they have long been a source of contempt for their fellow citizens who do not share their political positions and aesthetic affinities. For them, the same ones who play the lottery, take out quick loans and do not listen to Ostava - vote for GERB/DPS/Siderov/the mafia and hinder the realization of the ideal of "our people in power". Accordingly, they must be re-educated through the power of the state, even when this is done by a politician who until that day they had been asking for his resignation. Re-educating the unwashed masses is a basic life and political goal, the method and the consequences do not matter.
What to do?
As we have mentioned many times ( HERE and HERE and through our new podcast ) , the key to using any financial products, to a responsible household budget, to playing the lottery or gambling without problems, is not prohibitions and restrictions, but education and a good example. Knowledge of the negatives and positives, a rudimentary understanding of the probabilities of one or the other happening, reading the fine print, tracking the household budget and how much goes to what. As the modern Canadian clinical psychologist Jordan Peterson says – to follow the highest value from the time of the Mesopotamian civilizations - attention.
Empowering new lottery ticket distributors and moving ads elsewhere in the name of "teenagers," as the United Patriots bill proposes...will not work.
Unfortunately, politics is full of people who want to force their fellow citizens to live according to someone else's criteria of correctness. We remember Moskov's "tax on harmful foods", we remember the protests against the second elevator, we remember the aforementioned visits to drinking establishments, the list is long. Let's leave aside the fact that this is fundamentally wrong from a moral point of view and remember, finally, what Frederic Bastiat called "the visible and the invisible". At the moment, the total ban on all drugs is visible, at the same time everyone can buy a killer powder from school. So, please, do nothing more "in the name of the children" and let people have fun with their lottery tickets, because you don't know what can replace them.
