New York Lottery offers games such as Powerball, Mega Millions, SuperLotto Plus, Fantasy 5, Hot Spot, and Daily games. It also provides instant tickets and video lottery terminals. In addition, the lottery funds public education systems in the state. Historically, lotteries have been used for education, and this continues today.

Lottery opponents raised a variety of concerns, including the ethics of funding government services through gambling and the amount that states would stand to gain. They hailed from both sides of the political spectrum and from all walks of life, but many were devout Protestants who regarded government-sanctioned gambling as morally unconscionable.

In the era of high-profile campaigns that launched the modern lottery, advocates sought to defuse critics by claiming that lottery revenue would float only one line item in a state budget—usually education, but sometimes elder care, public parks, or aid for veterans. This approach made sense politically, because voters could easily agree that a lottery was a better way to fund something important without raising taxes.

The real problem, Cohen argues, is that the lottery is a form of regressive taxation. It draws heavily from the bottom quintile of the income distribution—people who have only a few dollars in discretionary spending and who might not be well-positioned to invest in the American dream or the promise of higher education. The very poor spend a greater percentage of their income on tickets than do people in the middle of the distribution, and the advertisements for the products are most prevalent in neighborhoods disproportionately affected by unemployment or poverty.