Comments about ‘The winners and the losers: Police officer's gift, Powerball, Beehive State government’

I am very thankful that Utah hasn't succumbed to the temptation of State operated gambling- aka the lottery

Even I, a person often despised in Utah as one of those loathsome "liberals," is thankful that Utah has not become dumb enough to allow lotteries to mess us up even more than we already are.

Saw News item in L.A. Times today starting in April 2013. California Residents will be able to play Powerball locally, where before California Powerball junkies had to drive to Yuma to play (and lose)

I often see comments on this news site from people who support reducing government expenditures for the poor and letting those services be provided by the private sector via charities. Their argument is that payments to charities are voluntary whereas government payments for welfare are mandatory via taxes. And that voluntary payments are better than forced payments.

Couldn't that same argument be applied to state-run lotteries? Couldn't it be argued that state-run lotteries are nothing more than voluntarily paid taxes? And why are voluntarily paid charitable contributions acceptable while voluntarily paid tax payments are not?