Official Lottery

In the beginning, lotteries were a way for states to raise money without raising taxes. But that changed in the nineteen-sixties, as growing awareness of all the money to be made in gambling collided with a crisis in state funding. With a growing population, rising inflation, and the costs of the Vietnam War, states found it increasingly difficult to balance their budgets. They could raise taxes, but that would enrage voters, or they could cut services. But that meant cutting education, which was unpopular with parents and students alike.

To get around this dilemma, lottery advocates began to recast their message. They no longer argued that the revenue generated by a state lottery would float all of a state’s budget, but that it would pay for a single line item-usually, though not always, education. This change was a strategic ploy, since it made it easier to argue that a vote for the lottery was not a vote for gambling but a vote for a public service.

Moreover, lottery sales increase as economic conditions worsen; when unemployment and poverty rates are high, more people feel like they need a quick and easy way to build wealth. And research shows that state lotteries market their games primarily in neighborhoods that are disproportionately low-income and Black or Latino. In that environment, it’s no wonder why they attract so many people who can least afford to lose.