#Lottery Revenue

[thunkdeep]

Unpacking Oklahoma's Education Funding: A Look Beyond Marijuana and Lottery Revenue

Dive into the complexities of Oklahoma's education funding, where marijuana sales and lottery tickets play pivotal roles. This post unravels the intricacies of state budgets, revealing the challenges and impacts of these unconventional revenue streams...

Introduction: Welcome to ThinkTank Theorium, where we don’t just scratch the surface – we dig deep. Today, we’re zeroing in on Oklahoma’s education funding. It’s more than just textbooks and chalkboards; we’re talking green – and not just the kind in textbooks. Marijuana sales and lottery tickets have entered the chat, but do they really make the grade in funding our schools? The Green Rush:…

[roach-works]

That purge poll you liked got me thinking. Let’s say you commit a huge heist on the day of the purge, like you walk away with millions of dollars. How is that money declared? You technically did not acquire that money illegally on THAT SPECIFIC DAY, but does the possession of the money BECOME illegal after the purge is over?? If I lived in poverty one day and then two days later I am miraculously a millionaire, people are obviously going to know what happened.

it's probably just taxed like lottery money. you 'won' it by participating in a state-sanctioned activity (day of no crimes) but now that you have it the state still gets a cut. on a cynical level this would give the state a lot of incentive to keep having the purge days: all of a sudden a LOT of millionaire and billionaire's highly-protected assets have been transferred out to thousands of blue-collar citizens whose income levels can be easily and accurately compared from year to year. and now all the assets like boats, cars, briefcases full of gold, works of art, etc, can get taxed at the end of that year at much stiffer rates than when they were getting sat on by professional tax evaders. hooray!

on a practical level, this kind of tax revenue probably offsets the expense of the spike in post-purge search and rescue, fire fighting, emergency room operations, and other disaster management necessary after each purge from all the arson and murder attempts. i genuinely don't know if it would come out even! but it's fun to consider.

[rjzimmerman]

From The Nature Conservancy:

Thirteen state and local ballot initiatives related to climate and conservation, totaling more than $18 billion, that The Nature Conservancy engaged in were approved by voters in the United States yesterday. “When the issue of conservation and climate is highlighted and elevated on the ballot, we find time and again that voters overwhelmingly support these initiatives,” said TNC’s Senior Director of Strategy Adam Snyder. “This year is no different, with 66% of voters supporting conservation and climate proposals.”

California: $10 billion climate bond that funds climate resilience, protecting clean drinking water and preventing catastrophic wildfires. Read TNCs statement here.

Washington: An effort to roll back the state's Climate Commitment Act was defeated. The CCA provides millions for conservation, climate and wildfire funding, including funding for Tribal nations and at-risk communities.

Minnesota: Renewal of the Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund for another 25 years. The fund will provide $2 billion ($80 million per year from state lottery proceeds) to protect water, land and wildlife across the state. Read the statement here. 

Suffolk County, N.Y.: Voters approved a ballot measure that will generate $6 billion for clean water and conservation over the next 30 years. 

Colorado: Remove the cap for water funding from an existing tax on sports gaming revenue, which will generate an additional $2 to $5 million.

Dupage, Kane, McHenry and Lake counties, Ill.: More than $500 million for conservation and forest preserve districts to buy land, maintain existing public places and improve public recreation opportunities.

Jasper County, S.C.: A sales tax for transportation, which includes a greenbelt component for land conservation that totals $94 million over the life of the program.

Louisiana: Directing federal revenues received by the state from energy production (such as wind, solar, tidal, wave and other alternative or renewable energy sources) to the Coastal Protection and Restoration Fund.

Maine: A $30 million bond that will fund a four-year grant program aimed at enhancing and expanding the state’s trail networks. 

Rhode Island: A $53 million environmental bond that will fund a variety of programs, including open space and parks, coastal resilience, forest management and restoration, farmland protection, brownfield reclamation and upgrading a port facility to support offshore wind development.

[gacha-incels]

South Korea's 'Gaming Kingdom' Falling Apart Due to '쌀먹' and 'Gacha'

Economy insight

CULTURE AND BIZ

published October 4th 2024 this I thought was just an interesting opinion and analysis of the Korean gaming industry which heavily features critique on gacha. it is originally in Korean and has been mtl and edited into english so it’s not going to be a 1:1 but the very basic info should be there. If you see any discrepancies please lmk and I’ll edit it asap. Thanks for your help and understanding everyone

South Korea was once known as a gaming powerhouse; it was a term that frequently described the nation’s gaming industry. Even today, games are the leading export in South Korea’s content industry. As of 2022, South Korea’s game export revenue reached $8.9 billion (around 12 trillion KRW), which accounts for more than 67.8% of the country’s total content exports.

Globally, South Korea's status remains strong in the gaming industry, ranking 4th after the U.S., China, and Japan in a global market worth 282 trillion KRW. Though there have been fluctuations over the years, South Korea has maintained this position since the early 2000s. From a numbers perspective, South Korea still stands as a gaming giant.

However, if you listen to voices from within the industry, the phrase "gaming powerhouse" is hard to come by. A brief look at industry trends reveals concerns about a crisis: "The South Korean gaming industry is in trouble" or "There's no more innovation." Why is it that despite boasting a much larger export volume and market size than K-pop or K-drama, the core of South Korea's content industry, gaming, faces such grim assessments?

Broken growth caused by an incorrect business model (BM)

The key to South Korea's gaming industry growth was PC online games, which spread with the high-speed internet boom in the early 2000s. At a time when other countries were settling into arcade or home console markets, South Korea entered the PC online gaming sector—a move that turned out to be a masterstroke. With a fast market entry ahead of other nations, South Korea took the lead, pioneering its own paradigm. But today, the industry is struggling to even maintain its domestic market, losing ground to countries like China.

Everyone in the industry knows why. The unique business model (BM) of the South Korean gaming industry, particularly the trade of game items, is seen as a major obstacle to growth. The term “rice farming” (쌀먹- note I went thru a bunch of translations of this and this is the one that I thought made the most sense in context.. if you know the actual set in stone translation lmk)—a slang term meaning “making money by selling game items”—reflects how making money through games has become a major reason for gamers' choices. Currently, 60% of the South Korean gaming industry's revenue comes from in-game item trades, showing how central this model has become.

The core of "rice farming" is the sale of in-game currency or items that allow players to save time on gameplay. Game companies have capitalized on this psychology, introducing probability-based items, also known as "gacha." Gacha, a system similar to a lottery, can reward players with rare items but is also highly risky. The system is often regarded as being close to gambling.

The gaming industry has desperately tried to conceal the fact that probability-based item models have elements of gambling or promote a gambling mindset. If public opinion were to focus on the gambling-like nature of these models, it could literally lead to the downfall of the entire industry. Since this "goose that lays the golden eggs" brings in massive profits easily, no one has been willing to sacrifice it, even though everyone knows it's a problem, making it difficult to change.

The issue is that this culture has dominated the South Korean gaming industry for a long time, severely damaging the overall diversity and competitiveness of the industry. The current crisis stems from a decline in trust in the gaming industry as a whole, following multiple allegations of manipulated probability-based items, which has subsequently led to a decrease in revenue.

Instead of focusing on enhancing gameplay or user services, companies have drawn in users solely with gambling elements, while users, motivated by the desire to make money, approach these games with a gambling mentality. This dangerous dynamic is the main reason why the gaming industry is in its current crisis. The fixation on a flawed business model has led to distorted growth, and the industry has so far stubbornly ignored the issue.

It’s not that there haven’t been calls for change. Many in the industry have been raising alarms, warning that continuing down this path will eventually lead to a collapse. However, market forces often silenced these voices. By 2023, the festering issues that had been ignored for so long have now grown into an irreversible cancer.

Today, Korean games are no longer judged by their content but by how well they incorporate gambling-like elements. One might wonder how this is any different from Japan's national gambling game, pachinko. This is the current state of South Korea’s gaming industry. What's even sadder is that all of this is a result of game developers knowingly turning a blind eye to the situation, blinded by short-term profits.

A Gaming Industry that Talents Ignore

Beyond the distorted growth caused by flawed business models, there are numerous warning signs for the Korean gaming industry. The most noticeable problem is the significant decline in competitiveness when it comes to developing new games. Recently, it has become increasingly difficult to find new Korean games making a mark in either the global or domestic markets. This issue has worsened since the gaming paradigm shifted to mobile platforms. In 2022, only one Korean game made it into the global top 10 for mobile game revenue. The domestic revenue rankings tell a similar story, with most of the top 10 games being either Chinese titles or mobile versions of games that have been in service for over 20 years. This clearly shows the lack of competitive new game releases.

Experts point to the distorted personnel structure of current game development companies, where decision-making is dominated by professional managers who often lack a deep understanding of games. They highlight that Korea's game development culture is plagued by rigid hierarchies and processes, rather than fostering individual developers' creativity.

Survey data shows that the average tenure of employees in the Korean gaming industry is only 2.8 years, and six out of ten game developers express dissatisfaction with their current working conditions. This stands in stark contrast to the foreign gaming industry, where passionate developers drive innovation with fresh ideas. The so-called "crunch culture," where overtime and late-night work are expected, is another major factor hindering the progress of Korean game development. The high workload, compared to other IT sectors, causes talented workers to gravitate toward other industries, leaving game development behind. This is not just a problem of individual developers' working conditions; it poses a structural threat to the future of the Korean gaming industry. Unless the industry escapes from its stagnant development culture, a resurgence for Korean games will be difficult.

The rapid pace of technological change surrounding games has also intensified the sense of crisis in Korea's gaming industry. When it comes to adopting and utilizing emerging technologies that drive next-generation gaming trends, such as the metaverse and blockchain, Korea has fallen significantly behind leading nations. The power that once positioned Korea at the forefront of game innovation seems to have all but vanished.

Industry insiders unanimously agree that the root cause lies in the complacency of game developers, who prefer to take the easy route and prioritize making quick money over embracing new challenges. This results in the industry circling back to its distorted business models. Looking at this trajectory, it's no surprise that concerns are growing over whether the Korean gaming industry can maintain its past glory in an increasingly competitive global market.

The Last Golden Time

For the South Korean gaming industry to recover, fundamental innovation is needed. The focus must shift from aggressive commercialization to delivering the intrinsic value of games—fun, emotion, and immersion. A drastic change in game design philosophy is required, prioritizing enjoyable experiences over pushing players toward in-game purchases.

Additionally, a flexible, autonomous development structure that values creativity must take root. Only in such an environment can future hit games emerge. Risky and innovative attempts should be encouraged, even at the cost of failure. More companies need to embrace new technologies and genres.

The road to reclaiming South Korea’s status as a gaming powerhouse will not be smooth, but if the industry collectively prioritizes the essence of gaming and takes one step at a time, the path to revival can open. Now is the last golden opportunity for the industry to unite for its future.

[a-typical]

Profits earned by the state, after paying winners and ticket merchants, serve as a major source of revenue that often funnels into social programs, especially kindergarten through high school education, creating a moral dilemma to vote against this form of legalized gambling in your state.

That got me thinking. Is probability and statistics even taught in US public schools? Recent surveys show that the answer is mostly not. In the few places that do teach it, classes are taught as a novel elective or as part of an advanced placement college course.

If instead, probability and statistics were a fundamental part of the K-12 curriculum, taught to every student, across multiple grades, and if state lottery revenue were allocated to make that happen, then the lottery might just put itself out of business by inoculating its own citizens against the lottery itself.

— Starry Messenger: Cosmic Perspectives on Civilization - Neil deGrasse Tyson (2022)

[communist-ojou-sama]

I can't wrap my head around the impulse to send you apologia about this so called "anti-gacha" stuff when you've made a clear and reasonable stance.

Particularly given these folks are likely in the US where sports gambling apps have absolutely blitzed most of the country, and forced major broadcasters including controversy-averse Disney to lend the ESPN branding to a gambling platform and every major sports league to rewrite their old blanket bans on player sports betting after they hopped in bed with Draft Kings and Fan Duel.

Gacha-games aren't free of sin I suppose, and maybe I'm wrong about where these anons live, but to single gachas out in the current environment as a key driver or even a major concern as opposed to state-run lotteries or the fact most problem gambling orgs are funded by a share of gambling revenues really indicates a preoccupation with something other than gambling as a whole.

Thank u! Yeah it seems to me that gambling is becoming more ubiquitous everywhere with traditional schemes for cash circulation throughout the economy failing but the only time people feel comfortable mobilizing shame, specifically, is when it comes to popular east Asian mobile games. It certainly doesn't feel like an attitude motivated by genuine concern to me...

[younggayanddoingokay]

My new obsessive conspiracy theory is whatever the fuck is going on for the ads in mobile games. Like I play a lot of puzzle games and in the ads for different mobile games, all these celebrities are showing up and at first the only way I knew they were “famous” was because they were like “I’m so and so from such and such” and I was like “oof, selling out on cameo for royal match, that’s gotta hurt.” And then I saw Tom Felton, a YouTuber I like, whatever. Then the other day I saw fucking DAVID BECKHAM on an ad for some mobile game and I’m like “wtf?!”

How are all these mobile games affording these people to advertise for them, WHY are they paying that kind of money for a free mobile game?! Like, in-app purchases from the modern version latchkey kids whose parents give them too many electronics to shut them up and don’t bother to parent-lock purchases are like, drunk people, and old people who get bored cannot POSSIBLY be generating that much revenue. So like,

Is it money laundering? Is the government sponsoring these ads to gateway-drug people into gambling so that they can drive them into some sort of new “in app purchase on mobile game to state-sponsored lottery gambling app” pipeline? WTF is going on? Something is suuuuuper fishy here and I’m so stuck on why.

[beardedmrbean]

Finland's infamous online message board Ylilauta has removed advertising on its website over the summer as the site transitioned to a user paying model last year.

"Yes, all our financing is now independent of others," the site's administrators wrote in a reply to Yle.

Ylilauta reported last year that it had 2.5 million monthly users. It has not publicly disclosed the number of paying users.

The decision to remove ads was voluntary, according to the site's management. However, there have been a number of problems with the site's advertising model in the past given some of the controversial content posted on Ylilauta.

Police found casino advertisements illegal

Yle MOT reported last year how Ylilauta paid millions of euros in dividends to its owners in tax havens. The proceeds were obtained, among other ways, by selling advertising space to online casinos.

The advertising of foreign online casinos is prohibited in Finland. The police could have imposed a fine on the gambling promoter.

Finnish police first intervened in Ylilauda's gambling advertising in 2021. Lauta Media, the Maltese company that owns Ylilauta, has denied violating the Lotteries Act.

However, in June it said it would remove the gambling ads to please the police.

"As a gesture of goodwill, Lauta Media will take steps to remove banner ads from foreign gambling companies," CEO John Farrugia wrote in a response to the police department.

Google removed its own ads from Ylilauta

In July, Tivi reported that Google had removed its own Adsense ads from Ylilauta because the forum violated its rules on hate speech and harassment.

Tivi cited the discussion threads exposed by Svenska Yle in June as an example. Ylilauta users had posted pictures of women without their consent.

According to the site's administrators, there are no longer any ads on the site, which also improves the user experience.

Ownership transferred to Estonia

Ylilauta is owned by Lauta Media, registered in Malta. The largest owner is Aleksi Kinnunen, the founder of the forum also known by the username Sopsy.

Kinnunen has owned around 32 percent of Lauta Media through Goldhill Holdings, a company registered in Gibraltar. In May, however, he transferred the shares to Pulju OÜ, registered in Estonia.

The rest of Lauta Media is owned by Halonen Holding, registered in Gibraltar, and Sissonen Capital, Stelbur Capital and Huhtikuu, registered in Finland.

[adamwatchesmovies]

Jackpot! (2024)

I don’t like criticizing premises. The movie’s “got to happen”, so picking away at the rules of a fantasy or science fiction realm and asking the movie details about backstories or events that took place before the action even begins doesn’t add to the conversation. This brings us to Jackpot!. If the premise HAD worked, this could’ve been an action comedy with some fresh ideas. Unfortunately, it doesn’t pan out and the weak setup proves no one sat down to make sure they were making the best movie possible, they just figured things would sort themselves out at some point during the filming.

By 2030, California has created the Grand Lottery. Now, every month, a lucky ticket winner wins big - and in the process, the financially desperate state generates some much-needed revenue. There’s a catch, however. You have to survive until sundown to claim your prize and whoever kills you before then gets your money. When Katie Kim (Awkwafina) accidentally enters the lottery and wins, the whole city is after her. Soon after the news breaks, she’s approached by Noel Cassidy (John Cena), who offers to protect her in exchange for ten percent of her prize.

Let's address that setup. I understand California wanting to make money by selling lottery tickets but what does that have to do with allowing anyone to murder the winner? Wouldn’t it discourage people from entering the lottery? We’re also told you can’t kill them with guns or bullets, which seems like a plot-demanded ruling rather than a logical one. Basically, if people COULD use guns, this movie would be over in minutes. Anyway, the opening text card says “Some people call it dystopian. But those people are no fun.” which feels like a half-hearted attempt to squelch some much-deserved criticisms if you ask me. I think even Jackpot! knows its premise doesn't make sense.

That rickety foundation wouldn’t be the end of the world if the rest was terrific. The thing is, Jackpot! is quite funny at first. Awkwafina is a talented actress and comedienne, as is John Cena, who can handle the stunts no problem. You'll be laughing until you realize a problem with the dialogue: no one in this movie has a distinct voice. Everyone makes the same kind of jokes as everyone else. There isn’t a straight man (or woman in this story) because everyone is always making wildly inappropriate comments about pop culture, their surroundings or people all the time. After a while, none of the dialogue surprises you because it’s constant and always “the same”. It feels like director Paul Feig is falling back on his old technique of letting everyone say whatever they want and including all of it whether it matches their character or not. More than once, characters deliberately put their lives on the line for the sake of a gag. The best example is a scene (prominently featured in the trailer) that has Katie donning an extremely elaborate makeup disguise that transforms her into an old man. There is no way anyone could recognize her… but she takes it off minutes later! Is she afraid for her life, or looking forward to the next wacky scenario she’ll find herself in?

The logical problems continue until the final act when we're introduced to a villain. You read that correctly. The premise is that everyone wants to kill Katie but for some reason, we need a bad guy too. The way this villain (who you can see coming a mile away but I won’t reveal) plans on getting away with what they’re doing just pokes more holes in the film’s logic and makes you start asking questions you were never meant to ask like, “Does anyone care about all these new, murderous billionaires living in California?"

The dopiest thing about Jackpot! is that the Purge franchise has a similar premise but handles it so much more intelligently. Yes, the first installment wastes its potential and creates profoundly idiotic protagonists that are practically begging to be killed… but at least within the movie people understand the danger of being targeted by maniacs who want to kill you. The script of Jackpot! (or whatever loose blueprint was given to the actors) is weak and it doesn't do anything smart with its central idea. The laughs get more derivative the further along we get and the second Simu Liu enters the frame, you can predict everything all the way to the end of the movie. If you choose to watch Jackpot! despite this review, you might as well stick around for the end credits, which contain several gags. (September 1, 2024)

[wumblr]

let's have a hard talk. these insufferable takes on AI are not advancing the discussion. the discussion was miles beyond this "takes work from artist" "consumer boycott must be the answer" dead on arrival poor substitute for an analysis, years ago, when timnit gebru got fired from google, for making what is now, because of her, the trivially obvious observation that large datasets may be too large to manually analyse for bias.

like congratulations. you have hit upon the point of capek's RUR, origin of the word robot, from a hundred years ago. were you going to take another point from back before the dust bowl or was that it? it's not just automation that takes surplus value from labor, it's any increase in efficiency. this is the first textbook feature of the economic model we're living under. luddites genuinely had more sense for nuance when the loom threatened to extract value from their labor at a pace never before seen. this is not that. luddites were producing textiles that people actually bought. you aren't.

aside from that, the implication that this is on par with like, a museum heist, or art forgery (both of which are, by the way, through a lens that includes class analysis, badass) is laughable. you are not selected for exhibition by making posts online, you are participating in a social medium where your continued pageviews are the source of advertising revenue. you are not bourgeoise, you are proletarian. your deviantart was search engine optimized to the point that it was trivial to pull five billion carbon copies of you off google images with like a two-line API call. you are not unique, you are one drop in a lost generation's renaissance. maybe if you don't want your work "stolen" you shouldn't be posting an endlessly reproducible digital copy to the world wide web? it's been seven years since twitter killed vine for trying to set the precedent that collective action can produce wage, can we bring back that level of foresight yet? or are you happy settling for tiktok because they deign to curate a ""creators fund"" for white heterosexuals? go buy a lottery ticket

i've said it before but this is a structured argument, presented to you with two neatly-collimated "sides," one that says every possible piece of data should be available for free for capitalist class to build automation out of it, and one that says pirating endlessly reproducible goods belonging the capitalist class should have harsher punishment. this is intentional, not unique, not new. it's the perverse dialectic of capital. you can only argue a side that benefits it.

the absence of nuanced intersectional perspective here is embarrassing. beyond that it's painfully obvious people are taking it personally, as if you had any chance to make rent as an artist, regardless of what procedural generation or neural networks might do. it's a selfish, blindly individualistic, mass manufactured wholesale bargain basement opinion, one that does not serve to advance any collective good, because it's based in the pipe dream of suddenly jumping three tax brackets to become bourgeoise. beyond that, doesn't it cheapen your art to only ever make saleable products? beyond that, it's painfully obvious none of you have ever tried using a neural network. from computer science or statistical perspectives, these constructs are novel and fascinating (or, the advent of cheap processing power sufficient to allow decades-old theory to flourish, which let's be honest, this power relies on an exploitative global network of rare mineral resource extraction and high precision manufacturing, which is yet one more topic i haven't once seen broached in the months this stultifyingly dull conversation has been ongoing.)

blaming a novelty for the ills of capitalism is nonsense, and it's not why luddites opposed the loom.

and let me just tell you, working with a code construct also does not improve your chances as an artist, which is the main point i wish i could get across. aside from the absence of intersectionality there's also an absence of class analysis, in which context it's, again, painfully obvious that no capitalist has ever cared one whit about art. even when they deign to take on a patronage it's as a backhanded PR stunt, like the unpaid notre dame roof pledges, to offset the ill repute they've accrued from extracting value for personal gain, while contributing nothing except the directive power their birthright of wealth gave them. this is the main critique i had about age of surveillance capitalism -- zuboff seems to think a return to ford-era capitalism, where the rich bothered to endow museums (to curate what they exclude) or pay a livable wage (in order to recapture it as sales), would solve the fundamental problem of value extraction from labor and natural resources for the barefaced sake of the profit motive. unremarkable and unsurprising for tenured faculty of harvard, how else would she sell books? but for some foolhardy reason i expected better from my peers.

your aspirations of small business aren't going to flourish if you suddenly got everything you claim to want and they banned every code construct from competing with you. you are not in competition with capital. you are nothing to it, it will kill you in total indifference without blinking, surely you ought to know this by now, it will bus in scab slave labor from prison to ramp up production despite a boycott in solidarity with a strike, and it's going to remain this way as long as capital survives. whether or not an algorithm or a network or an artifice is involved is irrelevant to the fundamental problem that it's a winner-takes-all game that ended before you were born. unless and until you want to start challenging the police that uphold the state or the insurance trust that pays to replace its points of failure, you're doing surface level armchair analysis on a problem that only the extremely online care about. arguing over what color of icing is on the cake you're never going to be eating while you starve for lack of bread.

and like... i get it. after the pandemic that we're still going through, you want to refocus on the things that really make you happy. but i've got to say, refocusing on art until you starve because you didn't manage to figure out self-sufficience during a recession is a sad way to die. perhaps you should consider the necessity of survival as a precursor to contentment. and to be clear i am saying this specifically because i care whether you survive and because i am interested in the artworks you are making or in your future potential. but you can't focus on that to the exclusion of all else, dog eat dog world and that means every day i have to see someone get ate. now for the last time, for god's sake can you stop yelling "this is because of code constructs" every time a dog eats your purported art commission revenue because it's really hurting MY purported small business revenue, selling products of code constructs,

[eqt-95]

For the WiP Title Game, one of your original works? Author’s choice. Please and thank you!

oh! honestly i didn't expect anyone to throw their hat over the 'original works' wall, so i'm a bit tickled to see this. i picked 'preferential citizens' because it's a bit 'out there' but i dig it (and would love to one day have focused time to work on).

but (also) tuck in because this is the first time i've 'written' what this story is about. normally i just mumble a few incoherent words until the glazed-over look of people feigning interest allows me a stuttering exit back into silence.

the concept is simple: it's a world where poll-taxes were explicitly given permission to exist in the Sixteenth Amendment (ratified in 1913). Call it a historical rewrite i guess? At it's core, it's a satire about the government implementing a federal poll tax in a desperate attempt to get people to vote.

But you may be thinking 'a poll tax would dissuade people, no?' And that is totes correct, except in this world, 50% of the revenue from poll taxes are put into a lottery, and anyone who votes is entered into that lottery.

Escapades ensue, hijinks happen, hilarity becomes somber moments of clarity, but for added complexity (and what really inspired this in the first place) i lean into the format of legal papers and their bonkers use of footnotes (upon footnotes upon footnotes: literal footnotes within footnotes; papers that are 85% footnotes). I also just truly enjoyed the chaotic (claustrophobic) reading experience of 'House of Leaves' which has levels upon levels of footnotes and narration and intertwining storylines. I loved the idea of poking fun at the legal papers while playing with different types of narration. So there are things like pamphlets and legal notices, anecdotes of 'Preferential Citizens' (the citizens who 'win' the lotteries), and a single (wildly unreliable) character in present day trying to take down the organization from the inside and crack the conspiracy nut that makes the 'lobby' of Preferential Citizens, government, and society as a whole all interconnected, corrupt, and morally bankrupt.

[neuroticpantomime]

I know this is like leftism 101 but god lotteries are fucked up methods of tax revenue lmao

[devoted-to-colin-farrell]

Jamie Lee Curtis: So there’s a redemption. And a reconciliation. And a healing.

Colin Farrell: It’s so beautiful. Because the only two things I know as certainties are, we’re going to die and we’re going to make serious mistakes. Whether we atone for our mistakes.

Throw back - Variety interview with Jamie Lee Curtis and Colin Farrell discussing, acting, sobriety and their Oscar nominated movies - Everything Everywhere All At Once and The Banshees of Inisherin.

Deirdre Beaubeirdre is one of the best characters ever!

Trivia - The appearance of Jamie Lee Curtis's character Deirdre Beaubeirdre is based on a stock photo of an IRS worker. The photo by Mike Simons, captioned, "Kathleen Malone works on tax returns at the Cincinnati Internal Revenue Service Center April 8, 2005 in Covington, Kentucky" shows an IRS worker with an identical hairstyle, yellow turtleneck, light yellow knit vest, glasses and necklaces (IMDB).

Colin Farrell summed up the story as "the disintegration of joy". Padraic starts the movie, "Like he's just won the lottery; he's so happy and content and connected". But by the end, he has turned into "someone who believes there is a place for violence in the world, and that it doesn't even need to be justified... and he can't find any of the joy that he once had in his life".

They were the best two movies from this year’s awards season (2023).

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

Brazil to begin taxing sports betting, aiming to boost revenues

Brazil's government issued an executive order on Tuesday to initiate taxation on sports betting, in line with a measure announced by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's economic team to increase revenues.

The measure takes immediate effect but must be voted on by Congress within four months to remain valid.

Under the new regulation, companies will be subject to an 18% tax on so-called Gross Gaming Revenue (GGR).

According to the proposal, national or foreign legal entities established in the country and meeting the requirements set forth by the Finance Ministry may apply for authorization to operate fixed-odds betting lotteries.

Continue reading.

[xbuddykinsx]

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Win the Lotto Lottery

Lottery in Austria is zero until the second of July, 1985 when the Toto Lotto Arranging, not entirely set in stone to bring the Austrians into lottery. On July eleventh of the following year, the Austrian government gave the gift for the expressed organization to embrace the games thus the Austrian Lottery Toto Organization showed some signs of life.

The main games in the Austrian Lottery's set of experiences were the Modest Number Lottery, Letter Lottery, Number Lottery, Class Lottery and Game Toto. During that time of being dynamic then, the said organization restored its name into: Austrian Lotteries Organization m.b.H. furthermore, modern, it is similar name which conveys all Austrian Lottery games under its flag.

The new games offered today in the Austrian Lotto are: Toto, Joker, Bingo, ToiToiToi, Rubbellos, WINWINWIN; a portion of the old games are currently at play, for example, the Letter Lot and Class Lottery; and one of the most famous game in Austrian Lottery - the Austrian Lotto, would be the feature in this article.

It was on September 1986 that the game, Austria Lotto 6/45 was first presented. Draws for this game is on each wednesday and Sundays. This game works by allowing the player to choose a number mix of six numbers inside the scope of 1 to 45. In the event that the six numbers match to the drawn numbers, the big stake is, obviously, won. Then again, beside snatching the big stake, there are as yet four alternate approaches to winning in this game, for example, getting a match of 5,4,3, or 2 numbers out of the 6 number blend drawn. A player can manually choose their six-number blend, or - he/she can utilize the "QuickPick" choice which haphazardly chooses the numbers.

The odds of winning in the big stake prize of the Austria Lotto are one in 8.14 million. The odds of winning the subsequent award, for example matching five out of the 6 numbers and an unexpected number, are one 1.35 million. Winning the third award then, at that point, comes at one out of 34, 808, for matching 5 out of the 6 numbers. The odds of the fourth award close in at 1 out of 733, for matching four numbers and, surprisingly, a fifth award is in question with the odds of winning at one out of 45 - that is, matching 3 out of the 6 numbers as it were.

It is great to take note of that unlike before, were the Austria Lotto is simply open to its populace, these days; anybody from all areas of the planet can play in Austria Lotto. Winners of the Austria Lotto are paid through cash. Austria Lotto shares its revenue for the tasks and improvement exercises of Austria.

A few players that participate in Austria Lotto, with the desire for getting one of the greatest awards in question, go in to various techniques and stunts to, as it were, select the most conceivable number mix to happen. Techniques like odd-even match, high-low numbers, and gathering numbering are not new to Austria Lotto players. Then again however, the main most ideal way to win the big stake in the Austria Lotto is to embrace a demonstrated lottery system for each game. Commitment in following this system is additionally similarly vital to assist with putting the odds into one's favor.