Problems With the Lottery
The lottery is a game in which people pay a small amount of money to be randomly chosen for a prize. Some states have lotteries that give out large cash prizes, while others use them to award everything from units in subsidized housing to kindergarten placements. In the past, these games were often used to raise money for public works. But today, most people participate in the lottery just to win a few bucks. The result has been a surge in the popularity of these games, which have become the biggest source of state revenue in many places. But there are some serious issues with these games, writes Adam Cohen in the New York Times.
Among them is the fact that lottery profits have been sucked into the general state budget, reducing its overall value. This dynamic has produced a second set of problems. Lotteries are selling the promise of unimaginable wealth in an era in which social mobility is declining, income inequality is rising, health-care costs are climbing, and job security has all but vanished. As a result, it’s harder than ever for young Americans to get ahead and stay there.
While many states use the money from their lotteries for education, the majority goes toward other state programs, as well as administrative and vendor costs. Some of the proceeds, however, are earmarked for specific purposes, such as veterans’ benefits or cancer research. The North American Association of State and Provincial Lotteries offers a helpful spreadsheet that shows how each state spends its money.
One big problem with state-sponsored lotteries is that the money they produce tends to be used in ways that don’t always serve taxpayers well. For instance, as Cohen explains, the huge jackpots that are now common in these games draw attention from news outlets and help fuel public enthusiasm for the lottery, but they also reduce the odds of winning and can make it much more difficult to hit the big prize. This can encourage sloppy play and can even lead to bad results. For example, Abraham Shakespeare, who won $31 million in the Illinois state lottery, was kidnapped and killed after his win.
In addition, Cohen points out that state-sponsored lotteries are often accused of encouraging a class war between those who can afford to play and those who cannot. This is true, in part, because winners have to buy a ticket in order to be eligible for the top prizes. But the bigger issue is that these games promote the idea that we can all get rich by chance.
For these reasons, Cohen concludes that the future of lotteries isn’t clear. They might continue to grow as long as super-sized jackpots remain the main draw, but if they do, it’s likely that states will be forced to either raise taxes or cut public services, neither of which is very popular with voters.
