Talking Like a Tax Collector or a Social Guardian? The Use of Administrative Discourse by U.S. State Lottery Agencies

Abstract

Aside from higher education, lotteries are probably the most importantstate product provided directly to the public. In the United States,revenues from lotteries finance directly one or a few socially desirablecauses. Lotteries are depicted as a well-focused quest for increasedrevenues that also takes into account a liberal respect for consumersovereignty. State lottery agencies have two goals: a main taxing goaland secondary societal welfare goals such as protecting compulsivegamblers and funding charitable or welfare programs. As such, lotteriesare often advertised as a way to earn proceeds for some social cause(often Education). Analyzing the administrative discourse provides awindow inside the balancing act of the two missions. Thetax-collector/social guardian positions taken by the different U.S.state lottery agencies will be scrutinized. Efforts to understand thedeterminants of the ideological positions revealed by administrativediscourse will be presented. In this chapter, administrative discoursewill be used to estimate how state lottery agencies balance their dualmissions. The results will shed light on the nature of state governmentand its bureaucratic apparatus.