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spite the Committee Report is that it is
not toward the evil of gambling in general,
but the evil of a political body gaining its
revenue by gambling.
DELEGATE SHERBOW: Not by gam-
bling. The evil is by lottery.
DELEGATE BAMBERGER: 1 will
amend my question — by lottery.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Lloyd
Taylor.
DELEGATE L. TAYLOR: Judge Sher-
bow, I am trying to understand your ar-
gument fully for constitutional ban on
statewide, state-sponsored lotteries. Are you
saying that a state-sponsored lottery would
create more problems than it would solve?
What I mean by this you are saying it
would give the feeling among some people
that financial problems of the State can be
solved by a lottery and it might promote
a bad feeling among the poor who might
feel that they may have a chance to win a
thousand dollars. Is it that it would create
an attitude that might add to the welfare
problems of the State? Is this one of your
arguments?
DELEGATE SHERBOW: This is a part
of the argument, Delegate Taylor. You will
find that expressed a lot better than I
could say it by many people who have said
that it preys the most on the poor because
the State then, instead of facing up to its
obligations to provide for the poor by taxa-
tion in the proper way, also gives the poor
the idea that they are going to get some-
thing when actually they are the ones who
pay out the most, get the least, and then
when it all finally winds up, they are the
ones who have gotten the worst end of that
stick.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Lloyd Tay-
lor.
DELEGATE L. TAYLOR: Has the
state-sponsored lottery in New York alle-
viated any financial problems of the State?
DELEGATE SHERBOW: I can answer
it only this way. It was supposed to be used
to help New York State with its problem
with respect to the amount of money that
would be raised for schools. It also provided
that part of that was to go to New York
City. As it turned out, the amount of money
they got from the lottery for the State was
so far below what they had expected and
the amount they got for New York City
was so far below what they had expected,
that it accomplished none of the purposes
for which it had been originally planned.
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THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Lloyd Tay-
lor, do you have further questions?
DELEGATE L. TAYLOR: Would you
say a state-sponsored lottery would help
curb illegal gambling or betting by citizens
of the state?
DELEGATE SHERBOW: It does not
help to curb illegal gambling, it does not
help to curb crime. It breeds them both.
This has been the experience elsewhere.
You will never be able to stamp out those
kinds of rackets except by law enforce-
ment. Nothing else will do it.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Lloyd
Taylor.
DELEGATE L. TAYLOR: On the other
side of the coin, did you give any consid-
eration to the psychological effect of having
the constitutional ban on state-sponsored
lottery? I mean, for instance sometimes
when you ban one activity, that may result
in an increase in that activity. I think that
has been the experience with regard to the
prohibition against liquor and in some coun-
tries where types of practices have been
outlawed like prostitution, narcotics and
abortion, you still have a great amount of
abortion and prostitution and dope addic-
tion in many of these countries where these
activities are outlawed.
DELEGATE SHERBOW: Insofar as lot-
tery is concerned, we have had well over a
hundred or one hundred fifty years ban in
the Constitution. We have had no state lot-
teries, we have had nothing on any large
scale. The only time we had anything on
what almost grew to be a very large scale
was when there was a lottery in Baltimore
City offered by an organization. It was so
big and so blatant that they offered a great
big automobile on one of the main streets
and they were indicted and the matter
afterwards either did not come to trial or
was dropped when they gave all the money
back.
It is not like the crimes you speak of.
Those are crimes that can only be stamped
out by law enforcement. If you want to
stop any dope addiction, I can tell you just
from the little experience I have had, the
way to do it is to stamp out the traffic.
The way to stamp out the traffic is get to
the source. The police have to be able to
do it. That's a totally different picture. If
this were so, then what's the use of saying
the Ten Commandments are there, thou
shalt not, this is what you mean, not what
I mean. All I can say is it is totally differ-
ent from those kinds of situations.
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