The word “lottery” may sound like it’s the stuff of Instagram celebrities and the Kardashians, but it has a long history. The first publicly held lotteries were in the Low Countries in the 15th century, and they raised money for everything from town fortifications to helping the poor. By the early American colonies, it was common for the states to hold lottery games. Benjamin Franklin even sponsored a lottery to pay for cannons to defend Philadelphia during the Revolutionary War.
In the modern sense of the term, a lottery is a game where numbers are drawn at random and a winner is declared. The prize money is often a large sum of money. Although some critics see the lottery as a form of gambling, others think it’s an excellent way to raise money without raising taxes or borrowing.
These days, 44 of the 50 states (and Washington, D.C.) run state lotteries, according to the BBC. The six that don’t are Alabama, Alaska, Hawaii, Mississippi, Utah, and Nevada. The absences of these states can be explained by religious or moral concerns; the lack of a gambling industry in those areas may have influenced their decisions not to participate; and political considerations such as the desire to avoid competing with Las Vegas and other gaming destinations that would drive up ticket prices for the lottery and reduce its profits.
Lotteries are primarily commercial businesses with the primary goal of maximizing revenues, so advertising necessarily focuses on persuading target groups to spend their money on tickets. As such, they may consciously or unconsciously convey the message that gambling is a fun and exciting activity for anyone willing to take a chance. However, that message obscures the fact that the majority of lottery players are low-income; that a significant percentage of those who play regularly are compulsive gamblers; and that these games have a regressive impact on lower income communities.
Rather than promoting the games as entertainment, state lotteries rely on two main messages to push their products: Super-sized jackpots attract attention by appearing in headlines and newscasts and driving ticket sales; and that playing the lottery is a great way to get rich quick. This latter message ignores the fact that most lottery winners do not become rich quickly and is coded to exclude women, blacks, Hispanics, and lower-income people.
The result of all this marketing is that the bulk of lottery sales and revenues come from middle-income neighborhoods, with far fewer players proportionally coming from high-income or low-income communities. Moreover, participation tends to decline with age and education levels. In this environment, it’s perhaps not surprising that many critics of the lottery point to its regressive and exploitative nature.