In the United States, state governments run lotteries to raise money for various public purposes. A popular argument for the adoption of a lottery is that it provides “painless revenue”: people voluntarily spend their money on tickets, and politicians can count on these revenues in times of budget stress without raising taxes or cutting public services. Despite these advantages, lottery revenues can be erratic and many critics argue that the government’s promotion of gambling is incompatible with its mission of serving the public interest.
In general, lottery games involve picking the correct numbers in a drawing to win a prize. The prizes may be small, such as a cash prize or goods such as cars, or they may be large, such as a house or a vacation. The game is played by individuals of all ages and incomes. But a large share of players are low-income, less educated, or nonwhite; men play more than women; and the playing of lottery games declines with the level of formal education.
Because the lottery is a business that seeks to maximize profits, it advertises primarily to attract the most people possible. But this approach has the side effect of attracting lower-income and less-educated people to gamble, and research suggests that they tend to play more often and spend more on tickets than other participants. This disproportionately low-income population is also a major target of lottery critics, who charge that it represents a form of disguised taxation on the poor.
