The Problems of Lottery

Lottery is a form of gambling wherein people purchase tickets and hope to win a prize. Some governments outlaw it, while others endorse it to varying degrees and organize state or national lotteries. Despite initial protests and objections, lotteries have achieved broad public approval, and have been widely adopted by the United States since New Hampshire introduced the first modern lottery in 1964. The history of state lotteries demonstrates remarkable consistency: states adopt the idea; legislate their own monopoly; create an agency or public corporation to operate the lottery (as opposed to licensing private firms in exchange for a cut of the proceeds); start small with a modest number of relatively simple games; and, as demand for games increases, continue to expand their operations, including the addition of new types of games.

Lotteries appeal to the human desire for wealth and recognition. They have a long history, with several instances in the Bible and ancient Greek and Roman texts, and have been used by towns to raise funds for town fortifications or to help the poor. They were popular in colonial America, and Benjamin Franklin even sponsored a lottery to raise funds for cannons during the American Revolution.

Despite their apparent popularity, lotteries also tend to have serious problems. They skew heavily toward the lower quintiles of the income distribution, with most players coming from the 21st through 60th percentiles, and they can be addictive. The truth is, people who play the lottery often spend far more than they can afford to, and that’s a problem.