On April 24th, 2008, for keno players, it is becoming a whole lot easier to access the state's popular lottery game but not for those people living in Gloucester or Rockport. The Massachusetts State Lottery Commission recently introduced the Keno-to-Go, a brand new feature that allows individuals to acquire more ticket at pubs or lottery outlets and verify the result on the website of the lottery commission.
Previously, keno could only be played in restaurants and bars, where the numbers that are drawn are displayed prominently on the electronic monitor. Gloucester and Rockport were among the 5 cities all over the state to use their right to offer Keno-to-Go. The city councilors of Gloucester dismissed the new keno feature to publicly protest what they believe is an unfair method of the state in giving out lottery aid.
Gloucester Council president Bruce H. Tobey, who lead the effort, commented that the formula of the state is no right because it just review the per-capita real estate value of the commmunity and the acount per capita profit. He added that the method does not favor the communities in the northern area of Boston because they have a bigger real estate value per capita income but they have a less fortunate population.
Aside from that, a clear evidence of the inequivality is the minimum return that Gloucester receives for its lottery profits. According to the figures held by the lottery commission, Gloucester produced $23.2 million in lottery sales for the fiscal year of 2007 and received around $3 million in total aid, or thirteen cents for every single dollar. Tobey commented that in more richer communities, the profit is bigger.
According to the statistics held by the lottery commission, Hamilton received around forty-five cents for every single dollar on 2007 or $757,377, for $1.7 million in total sales. Boxford produced no lottery profits but received $568,608.
[08-05]
John Sullivan
