Purchasing a lottery ticket at the neighborhood bodega the moment you hit 18 is just as much of a rite of passage and a sign of adulthood as getting your driver’s license. State lotteries and casinos are open only to adults, largely for the same reasons. Like cigarettes and alcohol, lottery tickets are a potential gateway to addiction.
Run by the 43 state governments as regressive taxes, lotteries brought in about $70 billion in sales for the 2014 fiscal year. Nationwide, statistics show that state lotteries tax the poorest of the poor. Not only do low-income individuals pay a higher relative opportunity cost by purchasing a lottery ticket, their stakes are also higher because they are more prone to keep buying.
A North Carolina Policy Watch analysis concluded that the poorest counties in the state reported above-average lottery sales. Eighteen out of twenty of the poorest counties had per capita lottery sales exceeding the state average.
According to a 1994 Indiana University study, rising unemployment rates produced higher lottery sales. At the height of the 2008 financial crisis, lottery sales hit record levels in 22 states.
Numbers aside, lotteries prey on our most vulnerable emotions. Ticket buyers are lured into a vicious cycle; a feedback mechanism built on hope and rewards. Hope is a powerful emotion. Historically, it has been the cornerstone of our nation and its success. Whether it was the Puritans sailing to Plymouth or the Virginia Company to Chesapeake Bay, the driving force was hope — hope of religious autonomy and economic profit.
By providing a quick and nearly impossible means of accumulating wealth, lotteries draw people in. Once individuals start winning small cash prizes, there’s no turning back. As the stakes become higher, their hope only grows stronger.
Revenue from lotteries exceeded revenue from corporate income taxes in 11 of the 43 states where lotteries were legal in 2009. With further digging into the uses of lottery revenue, we can better understand why our government condones this punitive tax disguised as a game. Proceeds from lotteries are directed to public schools. Despite providing for the education of our future generations, we must also consider the consequences of the lottery system on the poorest among us.
Lottery tickets not only cost money that could have been allocated towards satisfying immediate needs, they do so by deluding buyers with fantasies of opulence. Even if buyers beat the odds and hit the jackpot, they are usually ill-equipped to manage their newfound income. In fact, 44 percent of national lottery winners spend all of their winnings within five years. Worse yet, 68 percent of lottery winners continue purchasing lottery tickets despite losing consistently.
These facts reveal the truth about state-run lotteries. Setting a record for the largest jackpot in U.S. lottery history, the Powerball jackpot jumped to $1.3 billion this weekend. Now more than ever, the moral ramifications of the lottery system are relevant. Is it really worth exploiting the hopes of poor people?
As an immigrant with an optimistic view, I came to appreciate the American Dream the moment my plane swept across the New York City skyline. The American Dream is one of hope. And while it may sometimes border on naivete, it is the bedrock of our nation. The American Dream is why we are a free nation of diverse citizens stretching from coast to coast. Believing in it pushes people to seize opportunities and believe in themselves. It gives them hope that their hard work and perseverance will amount to something greater. By tempting the most vulnerable among us with the prospect of achieving thier American Dream, the lottery system is eroding one of our nation’s core tenets. It is dashing hopes and making it more difficult for those down on their luck to be optimistic. So, the next time you purchase a lottery ticket, consider betting on yourself first.
