Why Is the NH Lottery Asking If People Are Social Conservatives?

I got a scratch ticket for Christmas.  I get at least one, sometimes several,  every year.  Many of us get those, or give them.  They fit nicely in cards, in Christmas stockings or as a bonus-gift under the ribbon on the front of a cheery looking present, or attached with electrical tape to a carton of cigarettes or even on a one-pound Hershey’s bar wrapped in the front page of the December 24th edition of the Concord Monitor. (It’s not just for wrapping fish or lining bird cages anymore.)

You can give a bunch for a few bucks and feel as if you’ve been thoughtful (you did spend a few bucks), even if the recipient ends up with a few useless squares of thin cardboard and a low-impact workout from having to first scratch off and then brush away all the latex ink-shavings that stick to everything the way dog-hair sticks to black slacks.  (The scratching and brushing ritual is a topic for another time.)

And if they win big you get to smile and pretend you are happy for them when–at least briefly–you had second thoughts about giving them as gifts and almost kept them for yourself.

If you are not one of the one-in-four people guaranteed to win something you can try again at NHLotteryReplay.com.  But before you can replay anything you need to register, part of which includes some voluntary surveys, one of which asks some very curious questions.

They start off asking for the usual stuff, name, address, phone, date of birth and is this the same address to which we should send any prizes.   Prizes is a great word.  It makes your eyes light up.  Even jaded cynics like the word prizes, though they always suspect there is a price to pay.

NHLotteryReplay.com gives you points (which I assume could lead to prizes) for coughing up the above info then offers you additional opportunities to earn extra points.  I’m not sure what points are good for just yet but as long as they’re not on the ends of sticks of hafts or poles most humans (and despite speculation in more liberal circles I am human) like “more points,” and even cynics are willing to sit or offer a paw (no rolling over) if there might be a treat at the end, even if you don’t get to leave any of your fur on someones black slacks along the way.

I admit to being suspicious of anything the state does, but I like points too, and this was a curious new exercise so I offered a paw.

How often do you play the lottery, dollar amount range and so on…  “Almost never” and “as little as possible” were not choices so I picked the next best thing, then answered the handful of lottery behavior questions that followed.   Salesman will not be calling me based on this survey because I am not a good lead for lottery sales.  They will be exercising the automated internet equivalent (with my permission -points, points, points) by sending emails that will end up in my Spam folder – which translated means that I’ll happily check any box for points for things I’ll never see unless they happen to be “above the fold” and catch my eye as I click ‘Delete all Spam.’

With those points collected the site teased me with yet another opportunity for points.  Other paw.  But this “survey” was a bit different.  It included questions like…

1. I believe in working hard for what I earn.  Strongly agree.

2. I like to invest my money.   Strongly agree

3. I Consider myself very liberal when it comes to social issues…

What does that have to do with the NH Lottery?  My own question about their question struck me as such a good question I wrote a blog post about it and include their entire list of questions for your enjoyment below.

They also wanted to know if I think life is a matter of fate (no), if I am brand loyal (to my wife and kids), or if I think I have to look out for myself because the government wont do it for me (you mean the government that will happily make me their bitch until sugar daddy cuts me off cuz they can’t pay “the rent’ which some almost-polite unaccountable bureaucrat and their boss will insist is not their fault?).

Keeping government from interfering with my ability to look out for myself and my family is job one.

And yes, there is a question (thirteen) tat asks if you consider yourself very conservative when it comes to social issues.  Again, why?

I guess abortion, gay marriage, and religious freedom are tightly woven threads in the fabric of the lottery system.  Who would have thought (outside the lottery of course)?

No questions about immigration reform or ObamaCare, or my “thoughts or feelings about the Free State Project” to which the correct answer is ‘It’s groovy man.‘ though I suppose the moment you answer question three and thirteen, measured against fate and chance and charity and hard work, they can run that through the regulatory NH Lottery kidneys and piss you into the ‘proper’ ideological pot without a second glance.

No on asked who high I though taxes should be or if the state should have a minimum wage and at what rate per hour; preferably one that left an optimal amount of disposable income for lottery tickets?  That at least would have made some sense.

And where do they keep this data?   Is it attached to your log-in information (Name, address, phone number, date of birth and so on), and what do they do with it?  I’m sure there’s an FAQ or privacy policy statement for that somewhere on the website but I didn’t spend much time looking.

But those are the big questions.   What gives and what are you doing with the data?

If you know or are curious enough to ask the lottery commission about the survey questions, results, how they are used, kept and so on, let me know what you find out.  I’ll happily post a followup.

And as promised, here are the twenty survey questions I scraped off the original page at NHLotteryReplay.com.  And yes, you can click on the radio buttons – but only for entertainment purposes.

The following statements will be presented and rated on a scale from 1 to 6 (1= strongly disagree and 6= strongly agree):