The official lottery is a form of gambling wherein people can win cash and other prizes by matching numbers. Each state has a lotto, and they use the revenue generated from it to fund public projects. In New York, for instance, the money is used to fund education systems. The lottery also promotes instant scratch-off games, which are cheaper to play and attract low income communities. This is a regressive strategy that can lead marginalized Americans into deeper debt by making them believe they are gaining wealth through the game, rather than through traditional channels.

New Hampshire legalized the first modern government-run lottery in 1964, and its success prompted other states to follow suit. Advocates touted the idea that state-sponsored lottery games could alleviate budget woes without incurring the ire of an increasingly tax averse public. These early campaigns, however, were largely misleading, writes Cohen. They wildly overstated the amount of lottery proceeds that would go to state coffers, and they failed to address important concerns raised by critics who, like devout Protestants, viewed government-sponsored gambling as morally unconscionable.

In fact, the lottery is inherently regressive. It lures low-income people into a cycle of debt that can be difficult to break, and it is heavily promoted in neighborhoods that are disproportionately black and Latino. The result is that these populations tend to spend far more on tickets than do whites, despite the low probability of winning. The lottery’s impact on these communities has been exacerbated by the proliferation of instant scratch-off games, which are much cheaper to play than the multimillion dollar jackpot drawings.