Camelot Towers

The United Kingdom's national lottery, Camelot (interesting name) today announced two new games that will be used to help pay for London's 2012 Olympic Games. Unfortunately what this ultimately means is that the poor will be subsidizing the games that are the playground of the rich. This seems logical for these modern times. You might be able to afford the pound for the lottery ticket but what about the 50 pounds, if that, to see the 100 metre finals from the nosebleeds. You see, the rich and middle classes barely waste time playing the lottery; they have the stock market which is much more lucrative and has better odds. For the poor the lottery is the best that they can do to play the game. Throw in a little nationalism as the Olympics do naturally and you've got an easy, justifiable tax on the poor.

This begs the question, if London needs these lotteries to cover the cost of the Olympics, is hosting the event ultimately worth it? We're always told that the Olympics equal investment and development for cities. These Olympics boosters never focus on the cost overruns and debt borne by cities that host the games. And all the homeless people mysteriously disappear just days before the world arrives; or worse, who knows what the Chinese will do before Beijing 2008?