Michael Hiltzik: Prop. 27 backers say it will solve homelessness by enabling sports gambling. Don't bet on it

California ballot initiative campaigns long since turned into founts of misinformation and lies purveyed by self-interested promoters.

But it may be hard to outdo the sheer cynicism underlying one measure on the November ballot. That's Proposition 27, which aims to vastly expand gambling in the state by masquerading chiefly as a solution to homelessness.

Let's not mince words: This initiative, which would amend the state Constitution, is poisonous in several ways. Wise voters will steer clear. It's bad for the state's fiscal health and bad for public health, and it's being sold through a spectacularly misleading advertising campaign.

Proposition 27 will open California to online sports betting, a highly addictive form of gambling.

Although the state Legislative Analyst's Office estimates that it could produce as much as $500 million a year in state revenue, that sum isn't guaranteed. In any event the measure would sequester most of it in a fund for homelessness projects and for gambling addiction programs — thereby claiming to address a problem of its own making.

The public face of the Proposition 27 campaign is a group of Indian tribes that