If you haven’t gotten the message yet, lottery tickets should be your guide.
Monday, the provincial government ordered a stop to the sale of lottery tickets at retail stores, just one more effort to keep people at a physical distance from one another to halt the possible transmission of COVID-19.
The ban applies to all tickets, but the most likely driver behind the new restrictions are break-open tickets — the low-return, comparably inexpensive tickets that, for years, have kept you waiting in a lineup in the convenience store or gas station while the person in front of your works their way through flipping open all the little cardboard doors, finding the occasional winner, and then buying more of the tickets.
What does the government not want right now?
Anyone standing in a lineup — even a properly physically distanced lineup — for one moment longer than they have to.
Lottery revenues are equal to roughly one-half of the total corporate tax that the provincial government was expecting to collect in 2019-2020.
Tickets will still be for sale online, and the government is no doubt hopeful that those used to the quick have-a-dream high of ticket purchases will follow their dreams into the digital realm.
Why?
Because lottery revenues are big business for the province.
How big? $136,566,000 a year big; $374,000 a day big.
It’s astounding. A third of a million dollars a day in profits for this province, each day, every day for the entire year.
Lottery revenues are equal to roughly one-half of the total corporate tax that the provincial government was expecting to collect in 2019-2020. Think about that: the money coming in from people betting against massive odds that their dreams will come true is actually half as much money as the taxes levied on every single company in the province.
The Atlantic Lottery Corporation lists 61 different break-open ticket games on its website, with the odds of winning from one in 7.78 to one in 12.56. You might buy 12 for $6, and the odds say you would win around $1.
But they are instant gratification, and that’s a plus when it comes to lottery games; the endorphins from winning keep the money coming.
But moving the purchase of tickets online breaks that little endorphin chain, and the provincial government knows that full well; the fact that the government is making the move to reduce even the limited chance that you might be waiting in line with COVID-19 while someone roots their way through the latest fistful of tickets should be a message about how the government is trying hard to make things safer.
The odds of winning a big lottery prize are admittedly slim, and the only real winner is the government that sells the tickets.
The fact that the provincial government is sacrificing its winnings is evidence of how serious they are above improving your COVID-19 odds.
Stay distanced. Stay safe.
