They like his reputation as a man of the people, slayer of the sales tax on groceries and father of get-tough crime laws. And yet those things pale next to people's enthusiasm for Miller's lottery. Lottery money and the programs it funds seem to fall like manna from heaven, with no cost. But there is a dark side to the lottery. In Georgia, lottery sales are 2.5 times higher in low-income neighborhoods than wealthy ones.
Lotteries prey on the poor, the less-educated and minorities.
And lottery marketing is notoriously deceptive. TV spots invariably depict winners enjoying the good life, driving exotic cars and living in mansions. The millions of losers are nowhere to be seen. Perhaps the most pernicious aspect of the lottery is the way it assaults the traditional work ethic. A few years back, Sen. Miller published a little book about how he learned many of his formative values in the Marine Corps.