"The Lottery, with its weekly pay-out of enormous prizes, was the one public event to which the proles paid serious attention."

That line from George Orwell's prophetic novel, "1984," demonstrated how the oppressed citizens looked to the lottery to escape the drudgery instigated by the government. Of course, that same government offered the proles the lottery to dull their libertarian spirit.

Our state officials run their own lottery scheme and continue their monopoly power by outlawing most other forms of gambling. Sure, they were going to give us a few crumbs by permitting gambling in new government-approved casinos. However, they predictably passed the overdue budget without the promised "legalized" gambling. Instead, they raised the state income tax almost 10 percent and increased telephone and cigarette taxes.

Like the proles in "1984," we salivate at the 1-in-120 million chance to win Powerball, not recognizing that the statists who promote this rigged game are the same folks who steal approximately 50 percent of our finances through federal, state and local income, property, sales, utility and estate taxes.

Think about this before you choose to fork over one more dollar in a lottery tax.