Lotteries. Charitable Raffles. Legislative Constitutional Amendment.
	Argument Against Proposition 17

Arguments on this page are the opinions of the authors and have not been checked for accuracy by any official agency.

Proposition 17 would allow professional gambling organizations to run private raffles and lotteries.

Don't fall for the line that charitable raffles are presently illegal. Our Constitution and the courts have spelled out how to conduct legal charitable raffles.

Raffles and casino nights have been legally used by legitimate charities for raising funds for decades. The existing law is over 100 years old. No one has been prosecuted for this beneficial, entertaining method of raising funds to help children, hospitals, libraries, or a multitude of other legitimate charities.

Without limits and regulations, Proposition 17 will create the biggest gambling headache Californians have ever seen. What is now a harmless social activity will be taken over by professional gambling operators.

• Proposition 17 DOES NOT regulate buying or selling tickets by minors.
• Proposition 17 DOES NOT require criminal background checks on professional raffle operators.
• Proposition 17 DOES NOT require audits to ensure that funds actually go to charities.
• Proposition 17 DOES NOT prevent phony charities from selling tickets over the Internet.
• Proposition 17 DOES NOT prevent private lotteries from being big enough to compete with the State Lottery, diminishing funds for education.
• Proposition 17 DOES NOT prevent continuous raffles, without a winner for years.
• Proposition 17 DOES NOT regulate devices or pre-programmed computers to select winners.
• Proposition 17 DOES NOT regulate raffle advertising.
• Proposition 17 DOES NOT ensure that the future holds any promise for meaningful regulation.
• Proposition 17 DOES NOT limit the size or frequency of raffles or lotteries.

Under Proposition 17, unscrupulous persons will move in to create PHONY charities, market tickets statewide for their own personal gain, with only a trickle of money ever reaching legitimate charities.

Remember this. There is NO NEED for Proposition 17. Existing raffles are harmless fund-raisers for legitimate charities. They do not cause crime. The purchase of raffle tickets for local charities does not cause gambling addiction.

If Proposition 17 sponsors really cared about legitimate charities, they wouldn't have cleverly written this measure without regulations to prohibit phony charities and scam artists from lining their pockets with donations.

Proposition 17 creates problems and solves none.

Proposition 17 is a bad bet for California.

DON'T BE FOOLED BY PROFESSIONAL GAMBLING OPERATORS. VOTE "NO" ON PROPOSITION 17.

Dick Mountjoy
State Senator

Art Croney
Executive Director, Committee on Moral Concerns

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